A jury recently returned a verdict of over $52,000,000.00 in the case of a four-year old girl who suffered a severe spinal cord injury after being involved in an accident in her mother’s minivan caused by a drunken driver.
The “deep pocket” issue presented by the Plaintiff at trial was whether the booster seat in which the four-year old was seated on was defectively designed or manufactured. The car seat in question was a Costco Protek Booster Seat, manufactured by Dorel Juvenile Group.
The child’s life care plan reflected that she would require more than $60 million dollars for future attendant and medical care. This was a rather challenging case to bring before a jury, inasmuch as the accident was caused by a drunken driver who was criminally convicted before the civil trial. Extraordinarily, the jury found the drunk driver and the booster seat manufacturer each 50% at fault.
Cases of this nature are not only extremely necessary in order to attempt to properly care for the victim but obviously bear a tremendous amount of risk. Needless to say the jury could have found the drunk driver 100% at fault and in Florida it would deprive the victim and her family of receiving any of the jury’s $50 MILLION DOLLAR plus award.
While one might presume that a jury could decide based upon the sympathy of the circumstances these cases, regardless of how profoundly serious the injuries are, rarely are decided upon sympathy alone. There are often defects found in the design of the most well intended products, that but for the personal injury civil trial system are not exposed and corrected.
Apparently in this situation there was a missing element in the booster seat that allowed the child’s upper torso to slide under the belt, which caused the life altering spinal injuries.
For further discussion regarding defective products please contact the Fort Lauderdale Productions Liability Attorneys at the Schulman Law Group at 954-349-3300, 1-877-529-0444 or at info@www.schulaw.com
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