By Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS--A federal jury found that Toyota Motor Corp. must
pay nearly $11 million to victims of a fatal 2006 crash after
deciding Tuesday that a design flaw in the 1996 Camry was partly to
blame for the Minnesota wreck.
Jurors said the company was 60% to blame for the accident, which
left three people dead and two seriously injured. But they also
found that Koua Fong Lee, who has long insisted he tried to stop
his car before it slammed into another vehicle, was 40% to
blame.
Mr. Lee and his family sued the company, along with those
injured in the crash and relatives of those killed, in U.S.
District Court in Minneapolis. The lawsuit alleged the crash was
caused by an acceleration defect in Mr. Lee's vehicle, but Toyota
argued there was no design defect and that Mr. Lee was
negligent.
"No amount of money...will bring my life back; my life is not
the same anymore," Mr. Lee said after the verdict, adding he wanted
the victims and their families to know: "I tried everything I could
to stop my car."
Toyota released a statement saying the company respects the
jury's decision but believes the evidence clearly showed that the
vehicle wasn't the cause of the accident. The company said it would
study the record and consider its legal options going forward.
After the 2006 wreck, Mr. Lee was charged and convicted of
vehicular homicide, and sentenced to prison. But he won a new trial
after reports surfaced about sudden acceleration in some Toyotas,
and questions were raised about the adequacy of his defense.
Prosecutors opted against a retrial and he went free after spending
2 1/2 years behind bars. He later sued.
Under Minnesota law, Tuesday's verdict means Toyota is
responsible for paying all damages minus 40% of the amount awarded
to Mr. Lee, bringing Toyota's total liability to $10.94 million.
Mr. Lee will receive $750,000 of that total.
The trial lasted three weeks, and jurors spent about four days
deliberating.
Mr. Lee's attorney, Bob Hilliard, said it was a relief for Mr.
Lee to hear "this accident that has caused him so much suffering
was primarily the responsibility of Toyota."
During the trial, Mr. Hilliard told jurors that there was a
defect in the car's design. He said the Camry's auto-drive assembly
could stick, and when tapped or pushed while stuck, it could stick
again at a higher speed.
Mr. Hilliard also accused Toyota of never conducting reliability
tests on nylon resin pulleys that could be damaged under heat and
cause the throttle to stick.
"This is what makes the car go. This is what turns it into a
torpedo, a missile, a deadly weapon," Mr. Hilliard said during his
closing argument.
Toyota said there was no defect in the design of the 1996 Camry,
and that Mr. Lee was negligent. The company's attorney, David
Graves, suggested that Mr. Lee was an inexperienced driver and
mistook the gas pedal for the brake, and that is why the car
accelerated.
Toyota also noted that Mr. Lee's car was never subject to the
recalls of later-model Toyotas.
Jurors were asked to decide whether there was a defect in the
design of the 1996 Camry that was unreasonably dangerous, and if
so, whether that defect caused the plaintiffs' injuries.
The crash killed the driver of the other vehicle, Javis
Trice-Adams Sr., and his 9-year-old son, Javis Adams Jr. His
6-year-old niece, Devyn Bolton, was paralyzed and died in October
2007.
Mr. Trice-Adams's daughter, Jassmine Adams, who was 12 at the
time, was seriously injured, as was Mr. Trice-Adams's father,
Quincy Ray Adams. Those two and Devyn Bolton's mother, Bridgette
Trice, were the other plaintiffs in the case, along with Mr. Lee
and four of his family members who were in his car at the time of
the crash.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
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