March 7, 2007, Los Angeles, California -- Robert J.
Nelson, Scott P. Nealey, and Chuck Naylor, counsel for Adriana Mraz and
her three children in a wrongful death action against DaimlerChrysler
Corporation, announced that a California-state jury today returned a
$54.4 million punitive damages award against DaimlerChrysler for knowing
about and intentionally failing to cure a defect in millions of its vehicles.
On March 2, 2007, the same jury found DaimlerChrysler liable for the
death of Richard Mraz and returned a verdict of $5.2 million in compensatory
damages for Mrs. Mraz and her children.
On April 13, 2004, Mr. Mraz suffered fatal head injuries when the
1992 Dodge Dakota pickup truck he had been driving at his work site,
the San Pedro/Long Beach Maritime Terminal, ran him over after he exited
the vehicle believing it was in park. The jury found that a defect
in the Dodge Dakota’s automatic transmission, called a park-to-reverse
defect, played a substantial factor in Mr. Mraz’s death and that
DaimlerChrysler was negligent in the design of the vehicle for failing
to warn of the defect and then for failing to adequately recall or
retrofit the vehicle.
"Richard was a loving husband and father who was just 38 years
old when he died," stated Adriana Mraz. "He struggled for 17
days to stay alive after the accident and never regained full consciousness.
When I found out many people have been injured by the same defect, and
some even killed, I was determined to hold DaimlerChrysler accountable.
I am deeply grateful to the members of the jury for their hard work and
for sending a strong message to DaimlerChrysler that it must finally
fix the defect in millions of its vehicles."
"Mr. Mraz died and left behind a wife and three children because
DaimlerChrysler put short-term profits ahead of the safety of its customers," commented
attorney Robert J. Nelson. "Had DaimlerChrysler dealt with the defect
many years ago when customers first complained about park-to-reverse
problems, Mr. Mraz and others would be alive today."
Plaintiff's co-counsel Scott P. Nealey noted, "The evidence was
clear that the park-to-reverse defect in the Dodge Dakota, Ram, and Jeep
Grand Cherokee allows a driver such as Mr. Mraz to place their vehicle
into what appears to be the park position. The vehicle does not move
when the driver pulls their foot from the brake, but in fact, the transmission
is between gears. From this position, the vehicle can have a dangerous
delayed engagement of powered reverse after a few seconds or an even
longer period."
The evidence presented at trial included that DaimlerChrysler had received
well over a thousand park-to-reverse complaints, including complaints
with 1988 through 2003 Dodge Dakotas, certain 1988 through 2006 Dodge
Rams, and certain 1993 through 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees, over a period
spanning more than a decade before Mr. Mraz was killed. These complaints
were based on the same common defect. Senior management at DaimlerChrysler,
however, failed to investigate the full extent of the problem out of
fear it could expose the corporation to liability for injuries that had
already occurred and because it would require a massive recall.
Plaintiffs' counsel introduced evidence that the defect could have been
remedied with corrective action, which would have meant conceding a safety-related
defect in much of DaimlerChrysler’s fleet. Faced with this expensive
prospect, DaimlerChrysler never had its engineers conduct the "root
cause analysis," or utilize the type of design failure mode effects
analysis required as vehicle designs change -- which would have quickly
isolated the failure in its design and identified a proper fix.
"When DaimlerChrysler finally determined that it had to do something
about the problem in 2000 due to an ongoing NHTSA investigation, it chose
to issue a 'voluntary recall' of the Dodge Dakota in 2000 to install
a 'fix' that its safety office knew, and its engineers testified at trial
that they knew, did not fix the park-to-reverse problem," stated
Mr. Nealey. "The result is that today over a million vehicles, including
1988 to 2003 Dodge Dakota pickup trucks, are on the road with the same
defect that caused the death of Mr. Mraz."
At trial, plaintiffs introduced into evidence a 1999 memorandum written
by Antonius Brenders, Senior Manager in the Vehicle Safety Office at
DaimlerChrysler. In the memo, Mr. Brenders discussed the pros and cons
of doing a survey that the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency
sought to determine the cause of the park-to-reverse incidents. One of
the cons to doing such a survey was that doing so could provide “[p]roduct
liability credence to a hypothesis we have long ignored” and "continually
challenge." This "smoking gun" document showed that "DaimlerChrysler
refused to properly investigate the cause of all the accidents, including
those involving deaths, for liability reasons.
Chuck D. Naylor, a maritime lawyer in San Pedro, California, originally
represented Mrs. Mraz. Later, Scott P. Nealey and Robert J. Nelson of
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, joined with Mr. Naylor in
the representation due to their extensive expertise in vehicle defect
litigation.
"Hopefully, the verdict will cause DaimlerChrysler to change its
conduct and save the lives of others," noted Chuck D. Naylor. "Working
as a team with Lieff Cabraser's expertise on the defect issues and my
expertise on the long shore aspects of the case was key to the successful
resolution of the lawsuit."
Click as indicated to read a copy of the jury
verdict or the 1999
memorandum referred to above.
Vehicle owners who wish to learn more or contact plaintiffs’
counsel to report any injuries they have suffered as a result of the
park-to-reverse defect should visit www.usautoinjurylaw.com. |
