A jury in Brownsville, Texas, has determined that the Quincy, Ill.-based Titan Tire Corp. was not negligent for failing to provide a Spanish-language warning relating to maintenance of its tires. “The case involved the death of 33-year-old Raymundo Barrera, who died after a tractor tire exploded while he was airing it up at a farm near Camargo, Mexico, in 2002.” Plaintiffs filed suit neither in Mexico nor in Quincy but in south Texas, alleging that the company was aware that some of its products would find their way to Mexican farms (and also, presumably, to farms on which numerous other languages are spoken besides Spanish). “However, the jury decided Friday that Barrera was at fault and Titan was not.” Lawyers for the Barrera family, who had been seeking $10 million, say they plan an appeal. (“Jury clears tire company that lacked Spanish warning”, AP/Houston Chronicle, Sept. 1).

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