A jury found Chrysler about 45% responsible for an accident where “an inexperienced 17-year-old driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into the Mohr’s vehicle at a devastatingly high speed.” Said Steve Hantler, assistant general counsel of DaimlerChrysler Corp, “To impose any punitive damages in these circumstances, let alone $48 million, is an especially egregious miscarriage of justice.” Plaintiffs claimed the Dodge Caravan was unsafe in offset collisions; Chrysler notes that the Jeep overrode onto the minivan, so IIHS offset testing was irrelevant, aside from the fact that the Caravan doesn’t perform worse than other minivans in that test. Plaintiffs also blamed a second death in the accident on a faulty seatbelt, which Chrysler denies. Press accounts are still too sketchy to tell you more; we’ll have a follow-up down the line. (Bloomberg, Feb. 24; Mohr v. Daimler Chrysler Corp., No. 03-2433 (Shelby County, TN)).
Mohr v. Daimler Chrysler – $53 million
A jury found Chrysler about 45% responsible for an accident where “an inexperienced 17-year-old driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into the Mohr’s vehicle at a devastatingly high speed.” Said Steve Hantler, assistant general counsel of DaimlerChrysler Corp, “To impose any punitive damages in these circumstances, let alone $48 million, is an especially […]
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