Tennessee Jury Returns $105.5 Million Verdict Against DaimlerChrysler in Trial Over Minivan Seats

NASHVILLE, Tenn. November 24, 2004; Matt Gouras writing for the AP reported that a Tennessee jury on Tuesday ordered DaimlerChrysler AG to pay more than $105 million, saying the company's minivan seats were unsafe and led to a baby's death in a car crash.

The auto maker denounced the verdict and said its seats are designed above federal and industry standards.

The jury's ruling specifies $98 million in punitive damages, $5 million for the wrongful death of the child, and $2.5 million for the mother's claim of emotional distress, lawyers said.

The lawsuit said 8-month-old Joshua Flax was riding in the back seat of a 1998 Dodge Caravan in Nashville in 2001 when the vehicle was rear-ended, causing the front passenger seat to collapse back onto him.

"Daimler has known for over 20 years that these seats are deadly dangerous and never warned anybody," said James Butler, an attorney who represents Joshua's parents, Jeremy Flax and Rachel Sparkman. "Instead they continue to claim there's nothing wrong and try to mislead the press, public and juries."

Butler said the company has concealed hundreds of accidents where the faulty seats played a role in injuries.

"We reject that as ridiculous," DaimlerChrysler spokesman Jason Vines said.

Vines said a reckless driver traveling at twice the speed limit caused Joshua's death, and said the company's seats are designed with safety in mind.

"We share the jury's empathy for the plaintiff," he said. "This ruling ignores the fact that DaimlerChrysler didn't cause this accident."

The company plans to appeal the verdict.

"It is unfairly punishing DaimlerChrysler for a reasonable engineering decision that resulted in a product that met all federal standards," Vines said.

Butler said he hopes the large verdict gets the automaker's attention, since he claims it has ignored pleas from consumer advocates to improve its seats.

"The only thing left to the American people is to get jury verdicts to hammer them," he said. "We didn't do it to get a check. We did it so ... some other people might hear about this and others wouldn't get killed."

DaimlerChrysler said high-speed rear-end collisions are rare, representing only 3 percent of all traffic crash fatalities.

The seats are designed to perform in other types of crashes, and can't be designed so stiffly that they would never collapse, the carmaker said. Such seats would cause injuries in other types of crashes, the company said.

"In a collision you want the seat to take some energy; otherwise your body absorbs all the energy," Vines said.

Butler said the crash was relatively minor, and said the seat should not have collapsed -- and shouldn't have been designed to collapse like it did. He said the company used inferior seats to save money.

Joshua's grandfather was driving the minivan when it was struck from behind by a pickup truck traveling about 20 mph faster than the minivan, Butler said. The front passenger seat collapsed backward, and the passenger's head hit Joshua's forehead, fracturing his skull. The infant died the next day.

The driver of the pickup, and everyone else in the minivan, walked away from the wreck.

DaimlerChrysler, http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/dccom