Justices Back Auto Makers in Air Bag Suits

The Supreme Court today let stand rulings that protect automobile manufacturers from design-defect lawsuits for not installing air bags.

The justices, without comment, refused to revive three such suits against General Motors, one against Honda and one against Nissan.

Three federal appeals courts and a California state court ruled in favor of the car makers.

The lower courts relied on federal safety laws that until 1986 did not require any type of passive restraints and now give manufacturers the option of installing air bags or automatic seat belts.

The issue in each of the four appeals was whether the federal safety laws preempt product liability suits when the alleged design defect--the lack of an air bag--does not violate federal standards.

The justices in 1987 refused to order the government to adopt tougher standards for installing air bags or automatic seat belts in new cars.

Then-Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole adopted a so-called passive restraint rule in 1984 that phased in the use of air bags or seat belts that automatically wrap around front-seat occupants.

Car makers were required to equip 10% of their 1987 models with such devices. The percentage was gradually increased, and all 1990 model cars are required to have dashboard air bags, at least on the driver’s side, or automatic seat belts.

In the cases acted on today, the justices were told that thousands of design-defect suits are pending against car makers, “over a hundred of which involve claims concerning passive restraints.”

“The preemption issue has been raised or is lurking in every one of them,” the court was told.

Massachusetts resident Patricia Wood sued GM after being left a quadriplegic from a May 19, 1981, accident. The 1976 GM Blazer in which she was a passenger struck a tree. She was not wearing a seat belt. The U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals threw out her suit last December.

James R. Meier’s family sued Nissan Motor Corp. in California four years ago after he was killed in a crash of his 1982 Nissan Stanza. A state appeals court dismissed the suit last May.

Suits against auto makers were also filed in New Mexico and Florida.

Asked by the justices for its views in the Massachusetts case, the Bush Administration said Wood’s appeal should be rejected.