VW has averted an important process in the US: As part of this process, Volkswagen’s exhaust gas tests on monkeys were known.
Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg
Saturday, 24.02.2018
14:31 clock
Volkswagen has a crucial US court case in the last moment “Diesel gate” scandal prevented. The legal dispute with the owner of a VW Jetta, who had filed for $ 725,000 compensation for manipulated exhaust technology, was settled on Friday with the consent of the competent judge. This is based on court documents available to the German Press Agency.
Neither VW nor plaintiff attorney Michael Melkersen wanted to comment on the agreement or details of a settlement. The lawsuit should have begun on Monday with the jury’s selection at the county court in Fairfax, Virginia.
Although it was only a single plaintiff and a relatively small disputed, the case caused a great sensation. Claimant Melkersen had a study with Exhaust gas tests on monkeys on behalf of VW revealedthat caused a lot of indignation. First, the tests were to be performed on people, which Melkersen led to a controversial Nazi comparison – in a TV documentary, he made a reference to the Jews gassing in the Second World War ago.
Billions comparisons and no end in sight
VW then called for a “cooling off period” and postponing the trial by six months because the plaintiff’s side had publicly linked the company to “Hitler, the Holocaust, and other horrors.” The VW lawyers saw in an unfair attempt to raise the jury against the group. However, the court rejected this request on Tuesday.
Despite the billion-dollar comparisons that VW has made in the “diesel-gate” scandal with numerous diesel owners in North America, the company is still bickering with many US customers who have dropped out of the class action lawsuit and want to enforce compensation on their own.
Alone Melkersen represents over 300 such plaintiffs, two more of his lawsuits are in the coming months. Whether the lawyer again agrees out of court with VW, is unclear.