Court Overturns Judgment Against Suzuki

A $37-million judgment against Brea-based American Suzuki Motor Corp. was overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court, setting up a third trial in a case brought by a woman who was paralyzed in 1990 when the Suzuki Samurai in which she was riding flipped over. Suzuki has been the target of dozens of suits by Samurai drivers and passengers since the four-wheel-drive vehicle, no longer sold in the U.S., was savaged in a 1988 review in Consumer Reports. The magazine, which since has said the same about several other sport-utility vehicles, claimed the Samurai was inherently unstable and tended to flip over. In rejecting the award to Katie Rodriguez, 34, the Missouri justices said a lower court had erred in blocking attempts by Suzuki’s attorney to introduce a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report criticizing Consumer Reports’ test procedure. Rodriguez, paralyzed from the shoulders down as a result of injuries sustained in the accident, has won awards from two separate juries in the last three years, only to see them overturned on appeal. Suzuki has claimed that Rodriguez was hurt because she did not use a seat belt, that the driver had been drinking and that any vehicle would have rolled over in similar circumstances. The Missouri ruling on admissibility of the NHTSA report is not binding in other jurisdictions.