Spring 2006

April 30, 2006

Claim Deadlines Are Extended!

As of today, (and until further notice), members who did not receive notification can still contact the GE Moisture Class Action Settlement website for further information and to submit claims.  For more information please visit our Refrigerator page.

April 29, 2006

WHEW!

Last weekend, we became aware of documents filed with the Court that radically changed our understanding of the Class Settlement, and we were not happy campers!  These documents made it abundantly clear that General Electric was trying very hard to limit the 'damage' done by this lawsuit by making it virtually invisible to anyone outside the state of Florida!  (More details to follow later.)

The due date for objecting to the Settlement had (obviously) passed, but we sincerely believed that if the details we had discovered had been known to the majority of the Class members, they would have rejected the Settlement.  So in a last ditch attempt to make the Court aware of this, we arrived at the Courthouse early on Thursday and filed a hurriedly, very un-attorney like Plea with the Court Clerk.  It was a desperate attempt with little chance of success, but we felt we had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The Judge was very unhappy about the attempt (we will not share the gory details here), insisted that Cathy was not a rightful member of the Class (which she in fact is and has the GE mailed claim forms to prove it), and had no standing to speak for anyone.  Fortunately, Scott Weinstein (Lead Attorney for the Class) came to her defense and the most important point to be made was in fact heard: many members of the Class had not been notified!

After Cathy addressed the Judge, low and behold, attorneys for both sides informed the Judge that this was in fact true!  That morning, GE admitted that their databases had not 'talked' to one another.  Though no one knew at that time just how many people were omitted - and would not know for at least another week - obviously another mailing was in order and the due dates for claims and objections would have to be extended.  Despite this rather sudden revelation, attorneys for both sides tried to convince the Judge to approve the Settlement anyway.  It didn't happen!

Right now we are running almost 24/7 trying to get our ducks in a row and we will need everyone's help in the next few days.  So please check this website daily for the next week as we need you all now as much as ever if we are to get a fair Settlement for everyone.  As a 'Heads Up' if you have not done this already, please add info@bringgoodthingstolife.org to your email address book so our mail is not caught in your spam filters.  In the meantime, please read the press and TV reports about Thursday's events:

• GE vows to find all defective refrigerators
• GE: refrigerator defect a design flaw
• GE class action lawsuit hearing delayed
• Judge keeps settlement door open so more GE refrigerator owners can file claims
• Fridge Fiasco
• Couple sues GE over faulty fridge not in class action settlement
• Couple accepts settlement offer from GE for faulty refrigerator

Curious Details . . .

According to an affidavit filed with the Court by GE's media strategy and buying company, GE planned their media campaign to notify class members on November 14, 2005 - a month before the preliminary Settlement.  In addition, the focus was limited to:

• " . . . consumers 25 to 54 years of age with a household income of $50,000 or more.  According to GE Appliances, that primary target audience represents the vast majority of consumers that purchase mid-market appliances."

Why weren't home builders who purchased GE appliance packages (by the thousands) contacted for their homebuyer/owner lists?  Why weren't appliance retailers contacted for their customer lists?

In another affidavit filed with the Court by GE's direct mail company, they were hired to:

• clean the address list (445,464) of class members GE provided from the GE database which included all persons who had either mailed to GE a product registration card or otherwise communicated with GE about any of the refrigerators subject to the Settlement.

The Bloomington plant produced 1.5 million refrigerators per year.  If only half were the defective models on the list, how could there only be less than a half million owners to be notified?

• Print, mail (447,075 by April 17, 2006), receive (46,180 as of April 17, 2006), and log class action notices, claim forms, requests for exclusion, and other communications from class members.

Attorneys for GE admitted in Court on Thursday that at least 40,000 of the 46,180 claims received were from Florida residents!  These units were sold throughout the US.  If GE had contacted all known owners in the US, then there is something drastically wrong with the response.

• Establish and maintain the GE Moisture Settlement Class Action Information Center including a call center with telephone representatives (57,030 calls received as of April 17, 2006).

Yet in spite of having a call center up and running before the settlement was publicly announced, the company was still unable to mail claims packages requested by telephone before the due dates.  (We have a postmarked envelope from a consumer proving the package was mailed after the deadline for objections and opting out of the settlement.)

• Have access to the necessary systems and tools to retrieve and verify GE service history information.

Ad nauseum . . . with more to come.