Takata Airbag MDL: Peter Prieto Steers $1.5 Billion in Settlements for Millions of Vehicle Owners

Beginning in 2000, Takata Corporation supplied automotive airbag inflators that used ammonium nitrate as a propellant. Over time, exposure to heat and humidity caused the propellant to degrade, creating the risk of an explosive rupture that could send metal fragments into a vehicle's cabin. At least 16 people died in the United States as a direct result of inflator ruptures, and hundreds more were injured. The recall ultimately covered more than 41 million vehicles across 56 million airbag units, making it the largest automotive safety recall in U.S. history.

Claims against the automakers that had installed Takata inflators in their vehicles were consolidated in 2015 as In re: Takata Airbag Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2599, before U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno in the Southern District of Florida. On March 17, 2015, Judge Moreno entered an order appointing plaintiffs' leadership, naming Peter Prieto of Podhurst Orseck, P.A. as Chair Lead Counsel for the entire MDL. The role placed Prieto at the center of coordinating strategy across an enormous volume of economic-loss and personal-injury claims against multiple automaker defendants simultaneously.

The litigation proceeded on two tracks: economic loss claims from vehicle owners who had to bring their cars in for recall repairs, and personal-injury and wrongful-death claims from those physically harmed. Plaintiffs' counsel argued that the automakers knew or should have known of the inflator defect long before regulators compelled the recalls, and that tens of millions of owners had been left driving vehicles with ticking hazards.

Settlements were reached in stages beginning in 2017. Toyota, BMW, Subaru, and Mazda combined paid $553.6 million to exit the litigation; those settlements received final judicial approval in November 2017. Nissan followed with $97.7 million. Ford settled for $299.1 million, with final approval granted in December 2018. Honda, whose vehicles accounted for a substantial portion of the recalled inventory, agreed to pay $605 million. The seven automaker settlements totaled more than $1.5 billion in combined economic-loss class relief.

No reduction on appeal has been reported for the class settlements. Takata itself pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a separate criminal proceeding and was ordered to pay $1 billion in fines and restitution, an amount the automakers cited during the civil MDL as evidence that liability lay with the supplier rather than with them. Judge Moreno rejected that framing as a basis to avoid civil accountability to vehicle owners. The MDL continued to process individual personal-injury claims beyond the economic-loss class resolutions.