By Warren Brown
The Washington Post
An Atlanta jury Thursday ordered General
Motors Corp. to pay $105.2 million to the parents of a Georgia
teenager who died
in the fiery crash of a GM pickup truck in 1989.
The jury found
GM guilty of negligence and awarded $101 million in punitive
damages and $4.2 million in compensatory damages
to Thomas and Elaine Moseley, parents of Shannon Moseley, the
17-year-old killed in the accident.
The case, one of hundreds
involving controversial side-mounted fuel tanks, is likely
to reignite the volatile debate over
product liability, with corporations denouncing the size
of jury awards
and consumer groups arguing that big damage awards make businesses
accountable for their mistakes.
GM said it would appeal the
decision of the Fulton County State Court jury. "We
believe the verdict is incorrect," said
GM spokesman Ed Lechtzin.
The GM truck involved in the
crash is also the subject of a federal safety investigation.
Consumer groups say
that
those
cases involve
at least 300 deaths, a number GM denies.
Georgia law gives
the trial judge the option to raise or lower the jury's award.
Fulton County Court Judge A.L.
Thompson did
not say Thursday if he would adjust the penalty, arrived
at by the jury after 18 hours of deliberations over three
days.
Moseley's 1985 GMC Sierra pickup was struck from
the side by another vehicle operated by a drunken driver,
according
to
court records.
During the month-long trial, lawyers
for Moseley's parents argued that the design of "side-saddle" fuel
tanks, placed outside the body chassis frames of the truck,
made them likely
to explode in side collisions. They also told the
jurors that GM's own testing indicated that the side-saddle
tanks
were hazardous.
GM's attorneys argued that Moseley was hit
by a drunken driver moving at 70 mph and that the company
could
not be expected
to build a fuel system that could withstand that
kind of impact.
James Butler Jr., the Moseleys' attorney,
said in Atlanta Thursday that he sought a large punitive
award to force
GM to yield
to consumer groups' calls for a recall of the affected
trucks. The
award is not a record for product liability cases.
Dual
fuel tanks on the 1973-1987 GM full-size pickups were placed
outside of the frame rails, the ladder-like
structures
that support
the truck's cab and cargo box. Critics contend
that this made the trucks more vulnerable to
fire and
explosions in side-impact
collisions. Of the 8 million GM trucks designed
in that
manner, an estimated 4.7 million remain on the
road, according to
Department of Transportation figures.
GM in 1988
began installing a single fuel tank between the frame rails
of its full-size pickups.
In all, GM has faced more than
100 lawsuits stemming from death-and-injury crashes involving
the
trucks, according to GM officials. Most
of those cases were settled out of court.
GM officials Thursday declined comment on the
specific number
and cost
of those
settlements.
However, the Washington-based
Center for Auto Safety, a consumer group that has demanded
a recall of
the 1973-1987 GM pickups,
contends that GM has settled at least 120
lawsuits
involving fiery crashes of those trucks.
Some
of those cases might now be reopened, in light of the Atlanta
verdict, according
to Clarence
Ditlow,
executive
director of
the center.
GM, whose business has been
weak and which has been losing billions of dollars
a year,
took
issue with
the 12-member
jury's verdict.
"
We were not allowed to present certain evidence in the case," Lechtzin
said. "We can prove that that
truck" in which the young
Moseley died "performed well for
a truck that was struck at 70 miles
per hour," Lechtzin said.
GM will present all of its data on the crash to the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Lechtzin said. NHTSA
last December began a formal investigation in the face of
consumer complaints. If the government concludes that the
trucks are defective, it can force GM to recall the vehicles
-- a process that could cost the GM $1 billion, according
to some industry estimates.
FIND OUT TODAY WHAT YOUR DEFECTIVE PRODUCT
LEGAL RIGHTS ARE, GET THE LEGAL ADVICE YOU & YOUR FAMILY DESERVE!
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