By Andrew M. Harris and Deb Wiley
March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., the second-biggest U.S. tiremaker, is liable for the fatal rollover of a minivan in 2007, a Des Moines, Iowa, jury found.
The Polk County District Court jury yesterday found that the Cooper tire that failed on the 1997 Chrysler Corp. minivan wasn’t state-of-the art when it was designed and manufactured. Jurors awarded $28.4 million to Ivon Toe, a 39-year-old woman rendered quadriplegic in the accident. Her two children received a total of $65,000.
The estate of Assata Karlar, 28, who was killed in the accident, received $649,000. Her husband, Gaye, was awarded $420,000, and their five children received a combined total of more than $1 million.
“I really hope this sends a message to Cooper about these cases,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Wesley Todd Ball said after the verdict was read. “I hope they’ll change their philosophy at the corporate level in how they make their tires instead of defending them.”
Cooper was also assessed punitive damages of $1.5 million for a total liability of more than $32.8 million. Included were damages for the other four people riding in the van when it rolled over, the spouse of one of those passengers and that couple’s three children.
“We have deep sympathy for those involved and wish to express our sincere condolences to the individuals and families impacted by this accident,” the Findlay, Ohio-based company said yesterday in a statement after the verdict.
Tire Debate
Disputing the jury’s conclusions, Cooper Tire said it would appeal.
The jury found Cooper liable by a 7-1 vote, according to a post-verdict poll of the panelists by Judge Carla T. Schemmel. One juror disagreed with the liability finding and the imposition of punitive damages. They started deliberations on March 16. The panel of six men and two women declined to comment as they left the courthouse.
While attorneys for van passengers and their kin argued that the tire was defective, lawyers for the company countered that the tire was old, worn and damaged before the accident.
In his March 15 closing, defense lawyer Terrance M. Miller also said the driver of the van, Alfred Lang, was driving too fast and that his hard braking in reaction to the tread separation exacerbated it.
‘Facts Are the Facts’
Citing Lang’s one-year-old driver’s license, Miller said, “The facts are the facts. He was an inexperienced automobile operator.”
The jurors found Lang wasn’t liable for the crash. He and the passengers were all coworkers at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Marshalltown, Iowa.
Lang’s lawyer, Brett Redenbaugh, said after the verdict that his client had long maintained he had done nothing wrong. “All we did in about the past four weeks was try to prove that to the jury.”
Plaintiffs’ attorney Kyle Farrar told the jury during his closing argument that “if this tread separation doesn’t occur, this accident doesn’t happen.”
Farrar reviewed for the jury documents from the trial in which Cooper Tire executives discussed tire failure rates and the cost of remediation. The company delayed making needed changes to its products for more than four years, he said.
“Safety second, cost first,” the attorney told jurors. “That’s the theme.”
Claims ‘Outlandish’
Farrar asked the jury to impose both compensatory and punitive damages upon the tire company, arguing that such an award would send a message to Cooper Tire and to the industry to discourage potential negligence.
“The record in this case is the exact opposite from a case in which you’d expect punitive damages,” Cooper Tire’s lawyer countered. Calling the plaintiffs’ claims “outlandish,” he said such an award wouldn’t be appropriate.
In its statement, the tire company said its products, including the tire involved in the case, “are safe and reliable, exceeding not only all government standards but also our own, more rigorous, internal standards.”
The tire on the 1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan owned by plaintiff Achol Deng Maiwen, had been punctured by a nail that was still in the tire at the time of the accident.
“The tire suffered from long-term underinflated operation and had been damaged by a road hazard impact,” Cooper Tire said, adding “this tire was not defective and that plaintiffs did not prove that any tire defect caused this accident.”
Cooper Tire had $2.8 billion in revenue last year and net income of $51.8 million. Its larger U.S. rival, Akron, Ohio- based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., had $16.3 billion in revenue in 2009.
Cooper rose 58 cents, or 3 percent, to $20.01 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday.
The case is Toe v. Cooper Tire and Rubber, CL 10694, Iowa District Court, Polk County (Des Moines).
(bloomberg.com)
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