<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court reinstated on Friday a proposed class-action lawsuit accusing Dell Inc of selling defective notebook computers.</p><p>A panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed a federal district court's 2008 dismissal of the case against the third-largest personal computer maker.</p><p>That dismissal followed the plaintiffs' refusal to comply with a district court order that their claims be arbitrated.</p><p>Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, did not immediately return a request for comment.</p><p>In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that Dell violated California consumer laws by selling Inspiron notebooks that had inadequate cooling systems, power supplies and motherboards.</p><p>They said the defects caused their notebooks to shut down without warning, fail to boot up, or deteriorate too quickly.</p><p>The notebooks were bought between July 2004 and January 2005. It is not clear how many customers were affected.</p><p>In Friday's ruling, Judge Lyle Strom said the district court abused its discretion in dismissing the case and "the public's interest in a resolution on the merits weighed strongly" in favor of letting the case continue.</p><p>The judge also called it "unconscionable" to enforce a provision in customers' sales contracts requiring arbitration, in part because customers may decide not to pursue claims over the $1,200 to $1,500 computers individually.</p><p>"Dell has fought very, very hard," said Jonathan Selbin, a New York-based partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP representing the plaintiffs. "We got the courtroom doors open, which was our primary goal."</p><p>The appeals court sent the case back to the district court for further proceedings. Strom is a senior district court judge in Nebraska, who was sitting in California by designation.</p><p>Shares of Dell were down 2 cents at $12.99 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.</p><p>The case is Omstead et al v. Dell Inc, U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, No., 08-16479.</p><p>(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Additional reporting by Gabriel Madway in San Francisco; editing by Gerald E. McCormick)</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=68521916&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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