Exploding Sunroof
Over a decade ago, in July 2015, an Ohio plaintiff, Tom Kondash, was driving down the road at 70 miles per hour in his 2012 Kia Optima when his sunroof suddenly exploded and shattered. The incident left an impression, and predictably, he made his way (carefully) to his Kia dealership to file a complaint. “The sunroof spontaneously shattered,” he said, and he and his wife were cut by the shards of glass.
The Optima was already past its warranty when it was brought to the dealership, but the management still offered a goodwill repair, to which Kondash accepted and continued to drive the car for two years, tracking 34,696 miles afterward.
Believing that there was a widespread defect, however, Kondash sued in 2015, and the affected models include the 2011 to 2015 Kia Sorento, Kia Sportage, Kia Cadenza, and the Kia Optima and Optima Hybrid. Now, it’s almost 12 years later, and the case has finally been dismissed, Car Complaintsreports.
Dismissed After 10 Years
After the case was served, Kondash claimed he didn’t use the car much out of fear that the sunroof would explode again, which doesn’t add up, given the number of miles he was still able to track after the replacement.
Apart from that, Kondash also claimed that trading in the car or selling it wouldn’t sit right with him, as he would have put the next owner at risk of another exploding sunroof. After the sunroof was repaired, it lasted for two years and over 30,000 miles.
The car remained parked outside Kondash’s house since 2017, surviving the elements and the calamities along the way. The vehicle has suffered hail damage and also debris from a storm. Even then, the sunroof remains undamaged to this day.
Kia’s Case For Dismissal
The case was dismissed after nearly 12 years, under Judge Jeffery P. Hopkins. He dismissed the case after so long, citing one of the citations as the NHTSA’s prior investigation, which concluded that the glass shattered due to road debris rather than a design or manufacturing defect.
According to the NHTSA, “road debris such as small rocks ‘kicked up’ by other vehicles could be a contributing factor either in causing the sunroof glass to shatter immediately or causing imperceptible impact damage that can eventually result in a subsequent breakage due to additional stresses or glass damage.”
The lawsuit was also dismissed because Ohio law requires a few things. First is expert testimony for a design-defect case such as this one. An expert was needed to chime in on the plaintiff’s case; however, no expert was provided. The plaintiff failed to identify evidence of production and design defects, and without it, the case was dismissed.
