SAN DIEGO (LN) — U.S. Magistrate Judge David D. Leshner on Friday ordered Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC to produce 3,930 repair order documents it had withheld from a putative class action plaintiff who alleges the automaker sold vehicles with defective tires prone to spontaneous blowouts.
The order resolves a discovery dispute over whether repair orders documenting tire damage caused by "road hazards" are relevant to the underlying product liability claims.
MBUSA had argued that repair orders noting damage from impacts, potholes, curbs, screws or nails were non-responsive to the plaintiff's requests for production. The automaker reviewed 5,262 repair orders obtained from 23 California dealerships and produced only 1,332 of them.
Leshner rejected MBUSA's position, noting that a prior order from December 2025 had already determined the repair orders were relevant to the plaintiff's claims and the automaker's knowledge of the alleged defect.
"The December 3 Order did not authorize MBUSA to further limit its production to the repair orders that MBUSA deemed responsive to search terms," Leshner wrote.
The magistrate judge ordered MBUSA to produce the remaining 3,930 repair orders by May 6, 2026.
The court also addressed a separate dispute over 33,655 custodial documents MBUSA had withheld after running 60 search terms across its data. Leshner noted that MBUSA had a strong argument that the plaintiff did not timely raise objections to MBUSA's withholding criteria, which had been communicated by October 2025.
However, to resolve the issue efficiently, Leshner ordered MBUSA to submit a sample of the withheld documents for in camera review. The automaker must provide the first 200 pages of custodial documents deemed non-responsive and the first 20 documents withheld solely because they pertained to road hazards.
MBUSA must provide the samples with Bates numbers in hard copy or on a flash drive by May 6, 2026. Leshner said he will issue a further order following the review.