GM Files Appeal of $1.2-Billion Verdict, Calling Trial Unfair
Arguing that it received an unfair trial, General Motors is asking a Los Angeles appeals court to throw out a $1.2-billion judgment the world’s largest auto manufacturer has been ordered to pay the victims of a fiery 1993 car crash.
Several of the six victims were severely burned when the fuel tank of their 1979 Chevrolet Malibu exploded in the Christmas Eve crash, showering them with flaming gasoline.
On July 9, 1999, a Los Angeles jury ordered GM to pay the victims $4.9 billion, then the largest U.S. product-liability award in history. Six weeks later, after the company protested that the judgment was excessive by any legal standard, a judge reduced the award to $1.2 billion.
In his August 1999 ruling, Superior Court Judge Ernest George Williams let stand the $107-million awarded the two women and four children for their pain, suffering and disfigurement, but he pruned the jury’s $4.8-billion punitive judgment against GM to $1.09 billion.
Lawyers for the victims said they would agree to a further reduction of the punitive damages to $300 million if GM would agree to recall all models similar to the Malibu rear-ended in the accident. The auto manufacturer rejected the offer, saying it would appeal both the original verdict and Williams’ subsequent ruling.
That appeal was filed Wednesday in the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles.
In their 100-page brief, lawyers for GM argued that Williams, who presided over the original trial, excluded evidence crucial to the defense. The lawyers said they had not been allowed to document the car’s safety record or tell jurors that the driver who struck the Malibu from behind was drunk.
“These wild awards, the product of error and passion, are beyond the pale by every test,” the lawyers said.
Brian Panish, an attorney for the victims, accused GM of putting profits over safety.
“General Motors got caught red-handed,” he said Wednesday. “Instead of accepting responsibility for the damage they have caused in people’s lives, they continue to blame everybody else.”
