Small Win for BMW in Auto Recall Case
A Torrance jury handed a small victory to auto maker BMW on Friday in a suit brought by a Lomita man who suffered second- and third-degree burns when the heater core in his 1984 BMW exploded, spraying scalding coolant on his legs.
After deliberating for two days, jurors assessed $421,000 in damages, but they found that the plaintiff, James Jerra, was 80% responsible for his injuries. That means Jerra will receive less than $85,000--before attorneys’ fees.
In another blow to Jerra and his lawyers, jurors also determined that BMW had not acted maliciously, thwarting the plaintiff’s hopes for punitive damages.
“That was the disappointing part,” said Browne Greene, an attorney for Jerra. “We wanted a message to be sent that these cars get recalled, yet don’t get fixed and remain on the road.”
One of the main issues in the trial concerned how BMW and other car manufacturers conduct recalls of defective vehicles. Federal records reveal that 30% of all recalled vehicles never get repaired because car owners don’t respond to the recall notice or can’t be located. Safety advocates say auto makers and federal safety officials don’t do enough to get better responses.
After his accident, Jerra, who needed skin grafts on both legs, learned that his was one of 375,000 vehicles that BMW had recalled in 1993. Jerra never received a recall notice. His car had been unregistered for a while, and the recall notice had been mailed to its original owner in Ohio.
Jurors, however, agreed with BMW’s lawyers that Jerra failed to properly maintain his car, including the radiator and cooling systems.
Martha McKinley, a spokeswoman at BMW’s U.S. headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., said the firm “regrets the injuries suffered by Mr. Jerra but nonetheless we are pleased with the jury’s verdict.”
After the verdict, Jerra said he was “elated” that the jury had found that BMW bore some responsibility for his injuries. “The whole purpose of this suit was to get the word out that this product was defective,” Jerra said. “Hopefully, we raised some awareness so that others don’t have to get hurt.”
