Yamaha to Appeal Verdict in ATV Injury

Yamaha Motor Corp. U.S.A., a unit of Yamaha Motor Co., said Friday it will appeal the recent Alabama jury decision awarding $35 million to a 20-year-old man who was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident.

Jason Barron suffered severe brain damage when a borrowed ATV he was driving overturned on a dirt road in 1988.

In announcing plans to appeal, Yamaha said the jury “made a decision based more on emotions than facts.” Awards for comparable injuries in Alabama have rarely exceeded $10 million in compensatory damages, the company said.

“This irrational verdict and egregious award against a Japanese company and its U.S. affiliate . . . inevitably lends substance to foreign distrust of the American legal system,” said Russell Jura, senior vice president of Yamaha’s legal division.

Yamaha also cited “evidentiary errors,” such as the introduction of “irrelevant and misleading” information from an unrelated court case, as a component of the post-trial motions.