Patent ID: 8025320

Claim:
A latch device comprising: a latch that is disposed turnably on one of a vehicle body or a door body, that is configured to perform an opening operation and a closing operation and that is constantly biased in a direction of the opening operation by a biasing unit, and that is configured to perform the closing operation against a biasing force generated by the biasing unit by a closing operation of the door body such that a locking unit of the latch is engaged with a striker disposed on the other of the vehicle body and the door body; a ratchet that is disposed oscillatably to perform an engaging operation and a disengaging operation, that is configured to engage with the latch by the engaging operation to hold an engaging state, and that is configured to release the engaging state by the disengaging operation; an open lever that is connected to an operating handle provided on the door body and disposed oscillatably to perform a door opening operation by an opening operation of the operating handle, and that is configured to disengage the ratchet by the door opening operation; a lever member that is configured to be in contact with the latch in the engaging state, and configured to excessively rotate the latch in a direction of the closing operation of the latch while the ratchet remains at a position of the engaging state, wherein the lever member is disposed inside a latch housing below a notch groove for the striker, wherein the lever member is configured to rotate with respect to a shaft unit, and wherein a spring member is disposed between the lever member and the latch housing; and a driving unit configured to drive the lever member to bring the lever member into contact with the latch, wherein the door body is configured to be in a half-closed state or a fully-closed state with respect to the vehicle body by holding the engaging state, and is configured to be allowed to open by releasing the engaging state, wherein the lever member includes an arcuate-shape portion as an abutting portion on a portion of a peripheral face thereof, and is biased by a biasing force of the spring member which is configured to have a smaller biasing force than the biasing force of the biasing unit of the latch, wherein a contact unit of the lever member is configured to advance onto a rotation locus of the locking unit of the latch against the biasing force of the spring member when the driving unit is actuated, wherein the contact unit of the lever member is configured to depart from the rotation locus of the locking unit by the biasing force of the spring member when the driving unit is deactivated, and wherein the engaging state between the latch and the ratchet is configured to be released due to the excessive rotation of the latch in the direction of the closing operation of the latch.