Oxnard May Face Penalty in Millions : Lawsuit: City and Subaru are found only partly liable for ’92 crash, but law requires them to pay all special damages jury might award.

A little bit of liability may cost a Japanese car maker and the city of Oxnard millions of dollars, lawyers on both sides of a lawsuit said after a Ventura County jury decided a closely watched civil case Thursday.

After listening to two months of testimony and deliberating for three days, the jury ruled that Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and Subaru of America were 9% responsible and Oxnard was 11% responsible for injuries a young Oxnard man received in an automobile accident three years ago. Fuji is the parent company of Subaru.

Although the jury decided that 80% of the blame belongs to the driver and the passenger injured in the accident, Oxnard and Subaru could still be on the hook for millions.

Under California law, Subaru and Oxnard will have to pay any and all special damages while paying their proportion of general damages, attorneys said.

Special damages include loss of earnings, current and future medical expenses and related care expenses. General damages include pain and suffering and mental anguish.

With special damages, “You have to pay even if they found you only 1% responsible,” said Korman Ellis, Oxnard’s attorney. He said he felt the jury found the two co-defendants partly liable because both have “deep pockets.”

Israel Echevarria was riding in a rear-facing seat placed in the back of a Subaru Brat when he was thrown from the vehicle. He and his attorneys claimed that Subaru was negligent when it installed the rear-facing seats and enticed passengers to sit in the bed.

Echevarria and his family said they were pleased with the verdict.

“They were all at fault,” said Patricia Echevarria, Israel’s mother. “But I probably would have given Subaru a great deal more of the blame. In a safer vehicle, this accident never would have happened.”

Superior Court Judge Joe D. Hadden ordered the jury back to court Monday to begin the second phase of the trial, which will assess damages.

Echevarria’s attorneys said they will ask the jury for $7 million in special damages and $15 million in general damages, while also asking that punitive damages be levied against the car maker.

The second phase of the trial is expected to last another four weeks, attorneys said.

Attorney Edward Steinbrecher said that during the second phase he intends to prove that Subaru placed the seats in the back of its truck to pay cheaper import tariffs.

Steinbrecher said the United States charges cheaper tariffs on passenger vehicles than on pickup trucks. Because Subaru put seats in the bed of the Brat, the vehicle qualified for the lesser tariff. Nowhere else in the world does the Brat have seats in its bed, Steinbrecher said.

“They profited by $85 million by this tariff scheme,” Steinbrecher said.

Echevarria, now 21, was thrown from the bed of a Subaru Brat after it left Teal Club Road and crashed in a ditch in August, 1992. He landed on his head and is now brain-damaged and unable to walk. He also lost his left arm.

Echeverria and his attorneys also said Teal Club Road is dangerously narrow and unsafe because a drainage ditch runs the length of the road near Oxnard Airport.

The city annexed the half-mile stretch of road into Oxnard seven years ago because officials hoped a commercial development would be built there. But that development fell through, and Oxnard was left with the two-lane road within the city limits. The other side of the drainage ditch is Ventura County property.

Five attorneys hired by the car maker and the city had spent the last eight weeks trying to convince the jury that the accident was nothing more than a tragic incident caused by the driver and Echevarria.

Witnesses testified that Echevarria was hanging over the side of the truck trying to get the driver’s attention immediately before the accident. The driver, Nathan Stevens, also admitted on the witness stand that he was distracted by Echevarria and took his eyes off the road.

The jury seemed to agree with most of Subaru’s argument, saying that Stevens was 45% responsible and Echevarria was 35% responsible for the accident.

But Stevens was not named in the case because he is a family friend and had no money, Steinbrecher said.

“The jury said the plaintiff was three times more responsible than the city,” Ellis said. “But the net effect is that the city will have to pay 55% of the [special] damages.” Subaru is on the hook for 45%.

Subaru attorneys declined comment Thursday.