San Pedro, CA -- June 28, 2007 -- Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein,
LLP and the Law Offices of Charles D. Naylor announced that a Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge denied two post-trial motions submitted by DaimlerChrysler
Corporation. The motions were filed in response to a recent jury verdict
which ordered the automaker to pay $50 million in punitive damages to
Adriana Mraz and her three children for the wrongful death of San Pedro
longshoreman Richard Mraz. The punitive damage award is near the maximum
amount allowed based on the $5.2 million awarded by the jury in compensatory
damages.
The motions submitted by DaimlerChrysler included a request for the
court to overturn the jury's verdict, order a new trial and reduce
the punitive damage award to less than $1 million. Los Angeles Superior
Court Judge Mel Red Recana, who presided over the month long trial
earlier this year, denied DaimlerChrysler's motions. In his ruling,
Judge Recana found that the evidence presented at trial was so persuasive
that "the court or jury could not have reached a different decision
or verdict."
"The trial judge is the first judicial officer to express his view
on the punitive damage award," said Charles D. Naylor, a San Pedro-based
attorney and plaintiff's co-council with expertise in maritime litigation. "We're
gratified that the judge who heard all the witness testimony felt that
the punitive damages were not only justified but required."
"I am deeply grateful to the judge for strongly affirming the jury's
message to DaimlerChrysler that it must finally fix the defect in millions
of its vehicles," said Adriana Mraz, widow of Richard Mraz. "Many
people have been injured, and some killed, by the same defect. DaimlerChrysler
needs to be held accountable."
In March 2007, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded $50 million
in punitive damages to the family of 38-year-old longshoreman Richard
Mraz who died after being hit and run over by a run away Dodge Dakota
while working at the American President Lines terminal in the Port of
Los Angeles. The jury found that a "park-to-reverse" defect
in the Dakota's automatic transmission caused Mraz's death. They also
found that DaimlerChrysler acted with malice in failing to warn of the
defect and adequately recalling or retrofitting the vehicle. Mraz, a
San Pedro native, left behind his wife, Adrianna, a three-year-old daughter,
and two teenage stepsons.
"We are confident that the jury and the judge's decision will be
upheld if challenged on appeal," said Robert
J. Nelson, of Lieff
Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, a San Francisco-based law firm
and plaintiff's co-council with expertise in vehicle defect litigation. "This
decision by the trial judge confirms the jury's decision which was based
on the evidence we presented in court and that substantial punitive damages
were warranted. DaimlerChrysler's conscious disregard of consumer safety
caused the wrongful death of Mr. Mraz."
DaimlerChrysler could still appeal the verdict or choose to pay the
$50 million punitive damages. |
