A significant precedent was set for recovery of damages
for injuries caused by seat back collapses when in 2004 a jury entered
a $105.5 million verdict against DiamlerChrysler in the suit of Flax
v. DiamlerChrysler.
The case involved an alleged faulty minivan seat back, that the jury
found caused the death of an infant in 2001. The 8 month-old passenger
was killed when his mother was ejected from her seat during a crash
due to a seat back collapse, which caused her to fatally strike her
child, who was in a car seat behind her.
In March 2005, a jury awarded $27 million to Connie Mikolajczyk for
the death of her husband, James, who was killed in February 2000 when
the 1996 Ford Escort he was driving was rear-ended and his seat collapsed
backward, hurling him into the rear of the car's cabin and fatally injuring
him. The jury found Ford and Mazda, who together designed the Escort
model, as well as the driver that allegedly caused the accident, mutually
liable for his death.
In February 2005, a Cumberland County, Tennessee jury found Ford liable
and awarded $7 million to Betty Potter. Potter claimed that the seat
in her Ford Explorer collapsed during a crash, shooting her into the
backseat, severing her spinal cord and leaving her a paraplegic. In April
2005, the Tennessee appellate court upheld the jury verdict.
In November 2003, a Maricopa County, Arizona jury awarded Minnie Mae
Douglas $53.3 million in a suit against DaimlerChrysler. Douglas was
rendered quadriplegic after an accident in 1999 in which the driver seat
recliner bracket of her Dodge Ram pickup broke, causing her to eject
backwards out of her seat and strike her head on the cab roof. The case
centered on structural weaknesses in the BR/T-300 outer recliner bracket
that exists in 1995, 1996 and 1997 Dodge Ram extended cab models.
It is believed that through confidential settlements, manufacturers
have concealed many other instances of defective seat backs which collapsed
and caused needless occupant injuries and deaths. |
