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Exhaust gases flow from a diesel engine: Anyone who has only complained since 2019 will probably get away with nothing
Photo: Jan Woitas / DPA-Zentralbild
Thousands of diesel owners affected by the emissions scandal did not file a lawsuit against Volkswagen until 2019 or 2020 - and may therefore go away empty-handed.
In 2015, when the millionfold fraud with illegal exhaust technology was exposed, enough was already known to go to court, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe ruled on Thursday in a model case.
Anyone who demonstrably knew at the time that their car was also affected would have had to file a complaint by the end of 2018 at the latest.
Now the claims for damages are statute-barred.
(Az. VI ZR 739/20)
The diesel scandal came to light on September 22, 2015 and then dominated media coverage for weeks and months.
The statute of limitations is three years.
According to the case law of the BGH, an exception to the statute of limitations is only possible in exceptional cases: if the legal situation is initially so uncertain and dubious that it would be unreasonable to take legal action.
Plaintiff: VW Touran bought in 2013, but only sued in 2019
The highest civil judges do not see such a situation with diesel.
A lawsuit promised sufficient prospects of success in 2015, said the presiding judge Stephan Seiters.
It is true that there was a fundamental judgment from Karlsruhe much later.
From previous decisions, however, it could be seen that a lawsuit would be anything but hopeless.
The fact that some lawyers took the opposite view and later on some courts ruled differently does not change that.
The plaintiff had bought his VW Touran in April 2013 for just under 28,000 euros.
The car has the problematic EA189 engine, so it was undoubtedly equipped with a cut-off device that ensures that the vehicle complies with nitrogen oxide limits in the test that would otherwise be exceeded.
As has been established by the highest court since May, such diesel owners are entitled to compensation because they were deceived by the VW group in an immoral manner.
However, the man had only submitted his lawsuit to the Stuttgart Regional Court in 2019.
That is too late for the BGH judges.
The plaintiff knew in 2015 that his diesel was affected like millions of others and that the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) had ordered a recall, said Seiters.
9000 cases affected
According to VW, around 9,000 proceedings are still pending, in which a lawsuit was not brought until 2019 or 2020.
The Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer does not assume that all of these lawsuits will be off the table with the Karlsruhe ruling.
VW lawyer Martina van Wijngaarden said after the hearing on Monday that the case was special because it was clear that the plaintiff knew about it in 2015.
"In many cases, however, the question of whether there is knowledge or grossly negligent ignorance is disputed."
The Senate has already announced that another negotiation will take place in the new year.
The judges have also scheduled the next three VW diesel cases for February 23.
Then, among other things, the question arises as to whether the installed software update could also represent an impermissible shutdown device.
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caw / dpa
