$19.2-Million Award Against Chrysler Upheld

Massachusetts’ highest court upheld a ruling that Chrysler Corp. should pay $19.2 million to a man who blamed a faulty brake system for a 1990 crash that killed his wife and three children. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a 1996 Suffolk Superior Court jury verdict in the case of Paul Santos of Belmont. Santos was driving a 1986 Plymouth Voyager minivan on a New Hampshire parkway when he braked to avoid rear-ending another car. Santos said a design defect caused the rear brakes to lock, sending his van out of control. Chrysler blamed the accident on driver error. A spokesman for DaimlerChrysler, the company that resulted from last year’s acquisition of Chrysler Corp. by Germany’s Daimler-Benz, insisted that the brakes were not to blame. “There was nothing ever wrong with the braking system in this vehicle,” said spokesman Jay Cooney. Peter Black, an attorney for Santos, said: “That’s not what the jury said, and that’s not what the SJC said.” DaimlerChrysler shares rose 19 cents to close at $77.56 on the New York Stock Exchange.