Jurors Award $80M in Damages in GM Suit

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. December 20, 2002; The AP reported that a Jackson County jury on Thursday ordered General Motors Corp. to pay $80 million in damages in connection with a September 2000 driveway accident that left the driver of an Oldsmobile in a vegetative state.

Detroit-based GM pledged to appeal the verdict, which included $50 million in punitive damages.

The case was brought by Constance Peters of Blue Springs, who was injured when her 1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme suddenly sped backward out of her driveway, striking a tree and landscaping timbers.

During the nine-day trial, the family's attorneys argued the car's cruise-control was defective and not in use on Sept. 6, 2000, when the car raced backward and crashed with the 60-year-old Peters behind the wheel.

Peters fractured her skull in seven places lost an arm to amputation. She is expected to remain in a vegetative state for 10 to 15 more years, her attorneys said.

GM, the world's largest automaker, argued Peters mistakenly hit the accelerator instead of the brake pedal in the vehicle, which the company said had no defects.

Jurors awarded $20 million in compensatory damages to Peters and an additional $10 million to her husband, Randall, as well as the punitive damages.

After Thursday's verdict, GM spokesman Jay Cooney said the automaker would appeal the jury's ruling.

"We extend our sympathy to Mrs. Peters and her family, but we don't think we bear any responsibility for this," Cooney said. "Clearly the vehicle didn't do what Mrs. Peters intended for it to do, but it had absolutely nothing to do with any defect in the vehicle. It had everything to do with depressing the wrong pedal in this vehicle."

"The plaintiffs failed to prove the vehicle was defective in any way," Cooney said, and GM investigators inspected the wreckage and found nothing amiss with the car.