Pasadena attorney Joseph Lisoni filed two new lawsuits against Bridgestone/Firestone (BFS) July 20 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.
One class-action suit seeks the recall and replacement of approximately 10.7 million Firestone Firehawk passenger tires, and the other relates to the 10 million Firestone Wilderness and ATX P-metric light truck tires not included in the company's August 2000 recall effort.
Mr. Lisoni filed three class-action lawsuits in the past against BFS-two of which were dismissed and one still pending-for alleged defects in Firestone Steeltex light truck tires. He also filed his latest petition May 1 with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for a defect investigation of Steeltex tires.
All of Mr. Lisoni's previous petitions on the Steeltex, as well as an inquiry initiated by NHTSA itself, were dropped after the agency found no defect trend.
In a statement, BFS said the lawyer's claims have no validity. ``There is no basis for action with any of the tires named in Mr. Lisoni's class-action lawsuits,'' the company said.