Toyota Wins Major Lawsuit Involving Faulty Brake System
According to CNN.com, a California jury sitting in a Superior Court in Los Angeles rejected the claim that Toyota was responsible for the death of a woman who crashed her car after the brake system failed.
The wrongful death claim, brought by the family of the deceased driver, alleged that the driver tried to slow the car, but the vehicle experienced "uncontrollable acceleration" and then struck a telephone pole at a high rate of speed killing the driver.
The jury concluded that Toyota was not responsible for the accident and that the 2006 Camry did not suffer from a design defect in the braking system.
In a typical wrongful death claim, the plaintiff is usually the family or estate of the person who died. The purpose of a wrongful death claim is to compensate the family and dependents of the person who died for the financial losses they suffered as a result of the death of their loved one. Typically, widows and children can also recover for loss of "comfort and companionship" due to the untimely death of someone they loved.
To support a claim of wrongful death from a design defect, the plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the manufacturer assembled and delivered a product in their control to the public/plaintiff which was inherently dangerous, and that the inherently dangerous design did "proximately" cause the death of the user of the product. However, a product cannot be defective when its design meets all of the requirements of the intended user. A person who dies as a result of the defect need not be the actual user or purchaser, but may sometimes be a person who could foreseeably be injured by such a faulty design in normal daily life.
When tragedy takes the life of someone you love, there is nothing to replace the loss, but a personal injury attorney may help fill a financial and emotional void. Tragedy changes your life, but a chance to mend the wounds and move forward may be achieved by a favorable jury award or personal injury settlement.
For more questions concerning personal injury cases, contact Rogan Law.