Sep. 23, 2004. 05:54 PM
$200-million lawsuit over bike locks
CURTIS RUSH
STAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COM
Last week, someone showed a vast Internet audience how to pick a bicycle U-lock with a Bic pen and word spread like wildfire across North America.
Now, a Toronto man wants the manufacturers to pay.
Lawyer Louis Sokolov told thestar.com today that he is acting for bicycle enthusiast William Beattie, the single representative plaintiff, in a $200-million class action lawsuit over the faulty locks.
Beattie will be the representative plaintiff for a number of other plaintiffs.
In the next few weeks, a notice will go out to potential plaintiffs, suggesting they contact the law firm Sack Goldblatt Mitchell to be registered in the lawsuit.
The $200 million is "an arbitrary number because at this point we don't know how many people have been affected," Sokolov said.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in Ontario Superior Court against all the major lock manufacturers, Sokolov said.
Consumers across Canada and around the world learned last week that many U-locks with cylindrical key mechanisms can easily be defeated with the simple twist of a Bic pen, the law firm said today in a news release.
The story broke in the mainstream press years after the faulty lock was reported in a trade publication.
Sokolov said "a competent company should have been reading the trade publications."
Sean Dewart, one of the lawyers who launched the class action, said in a news release that "although the defect was reported in a specialized trade magazine more than a decade ago, a number of manufacturers, including Kryptonite, continued to market this type of lock as the gold standard."
"Many of the locks are now nothing more than expensive scrap metal and many bicycle owners are in jeopardy of having their bikes easily stolen," Dewart added. "The recall being offered by one single manufacturer to exchange locks beginning in mid-October is completely inadequate. Bicycle owners need reliable locks now, not weeks or months from now. The lawsuit has been commenced to provide meaningful recourse for thousands of consumers"
A detailed statement of claim will be filed within the next 30 days, the firm said.
Sokolov, a co-counsel with Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, said today that Beattie, who works in the film industry and is a bike enthusiast, approached the law firm about launching the suit.
Sokolov said in an interview that "what occurred to many people was that the lock that they put their trust in for many years was all of a sudden useless and as of last Thursday or Friday when this story broke, the $50 or $100 that people had spent on a Kryptonite lock was no longer money well spent."
The lawsuit is seeking to compensate people who, for safety concerns, have to buy a new lock or use other modes of transportation if bike locks are sold out. There are also thousands of people who have their bikes stolen, Sokolov said, "although it's obviously difficult to prove."
He called it a straight-forward product liability case.
Kryptonite spokesperson Donna Tocci said this afternoon that "it is company policy not to reply to any current litigation."
However, in a notice posted on its web site, Kryptonite said the company is offering free product exchanges to all consumers who are concerned about the security of their current Kryptonite tubular cylinder locks.
"At no charge to them, consumers will be able to exchange their current Kryptonite tubular cylinder lock for a Kryptonite non-tubular cylinder lock," general manager Steve Down said in the statement.
"Kryptonite will begin exchanging products within a few weeks as it accelerates product availability.
"At Kryptonite, we understand the responsibility that comes with being the market leader. Since we learned last week about the possibility of compromising some of the industry's tubular cylinder locks, we have been working diligently to devise the best and most responsible solution to address the concerns of consumers and to meet the needs of our distributors and retailers."
Said Sokolov: "The people who bought that product deserve to be compensated. But we don't know how many people out there have been affected. We assume it's tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands."
Not only was Kryptonite named in the lawsuit, but other manufacturers as well, including Norco and Bike Guard. The distributors were also named. Sokolov said the suit will also be adding a number of major bicycle retailers as well.
The lawsuit could take several months to be settled.
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