Rare Volvo Crash Trial Results in Unanimous Defense Verdict
Known for Safety, Plaintiff Claimed an Unsafe Roof
and Misleading Ads
RENO, Nev. &
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2003--After a six-week trial
and five hours of deliberation, a Reno, NV federal court jury returned
a unanimous defense verdict in favor of Volvo Cars of North America,
Inc. on January 24, 2003. Under current Nevada law, all strict liability
cases must be unanimous decisions. Plaintiff Patrick Ricci and his wife
Patricia claimed their 1986 Volvo 740 GLE sedan had a weak and unsafe
roof. On March 17, 2003 the trial court denied plaintiff's motion for
a new trail and upheld the jury verdict.
The case resulted
from a crash that occurred shortly after 3:00 a.m., July 6, 1997, on
Interstate 15 in Clark County, NV. Patrick Ricci and two friends were
travelling home after a golf weekend and Amway conference in southern
Utah. All three passengers were wearing seatbelts when the Volvo sedan
went off the road along a flat, straight and dark stretch of desert
highway. As the car veered off the road and onto the median, Ricci oversteered
to the right and then overcorrected left, causing the vehicle to overturn
and roll three times. Ricci sustained a C-4/C-5 fracture, losing all
movement and feeling below his neck. The other two passengers were bruised,
with no serious injuries.
Ricci claimed the
Volvo sedan was defective and unreasonably dangerous because the roof
crushed, causing his neck injury. Ricci claimed the car should have
been designed to prevent roof crush in this reasonably foreseeable rollover
accident. Expert witnesses for Ricci, Robert Caldwell, Stephen Syson,
Campbell Laird, and Dr. Joseph Burton, all testified that the car could
have been designed to prevent this injury. Arguing that a rollover is
a benign event, Ricci asserted the roof structure should have been designed
so the strength of the roof was four times greater than the weight of
the vehicle. The current federal standards dictate the roof strength
be one and one-half times greater than the vehicle weight. Ricci and
his experts asserted that Volvo had one of the lowest roof strength
to weight ratios in the industry, despite Volvo's claim of being a safety
leader. In addition, Ricci and his experts presented testimony that
Volvo's advertising was deceptive and misleading by painting a picture
that the car could withstand substantial loads placed upon the roof.
During cross examination
of plaintiff's experts, Volvo put on evidence that plaintiff's experts
were unfamiliar with the details of the design of the 1986 740 roof
structure, the vehicle exceeded the Federal standard by a significant
margin and the accident involved multiple impacts to the roof, such
that no 1986 production car would have performed any better in this
severe rollover accident. During its case, Volvo called expert witnesses
Terry Thomas and Dr. Barry Myers, to further rebut the allegations.
These experts testified as to the severity of this accident, including
the violence of a rollover accident. The jury heard testimony that rather
than the neck injury occurring as a result of roof crush, the neck injury
occurred as a result of a dive into the ground. Analogous to a diver
who receives a neck injury when diving into a shallow pool, an occupant
in a rollover accident can receive a neck injury prior to any roof crush
when the occupant dives into the ground. During this phenomenon, the
head stops, but the torso of the occupant continues toward the ground,
fracturing the neck.
Plaintiff's attorney
had suggested to the jury an award of $10-12 million.
Patrick A. Ricci
and Patricia Ricci, husband and wife, vs. Volvo Cars
of North America, Inc.
United States District Court, District of Nevada
Judge Edward C. Reed, Jr.
Case No. CV-N-00-088-ECR (RAM)
Plaintiffs were represented by Larry E. Coben, Esq., of the law firm
of Coben & Associates, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Peter Chase Neumann,
Esq., of Reno, Nevada.
Volvo was represented
by David W. Graves, Jr., Esq., and Scott B. Paxton, Esq., of the law
firm of Bowman and Brooke LLP, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Greg W. Marsh,
Esq., of the Law Offices of Greg W. Marsh, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Experts for the
Plaintiff: Stephen R, Syson, Syson-Hille & Associates, Goleta, CA;
Dr. Joseph Burton, Burton & Associates, Alpharetta, GA; Dr. Robert
Caldwell, Ponderosa Engineering, LaFayette, CO; and Dr. Campbell Laird,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
Experts for the
Defense: Dr. Barry Myers, Duke University, Department of Biomedical
Engineering, Durham, NC and Terry Thomas, Thomas Engineering, Inc.,
Phoenix, AZ.
Photo of Ricci's
car available upon request.
Contact:
Bowman and Brooke LLP, Minneapolis
Amanda Walsh, 612/672-3248
awalsh@bowman-brooke.com
Source: Bowman
and Brooke LLP
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