Jury Awards $317K in Yamaha Test Case
In a test for similar cases pending in Gwinnett County, Ga., a State Court jury awarded $317,002 to a north Georgia couple last week to compensate them for injuries caused when the husband's leg was trapped under his Yamaha off-road vehicle.
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Source: Jury Awards $317K in Yamaha Test Case
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In a test for similar cases pending in Gwinnett County, Ga., a State Court jury awarded $317,002 to a north Georgia couple last week to compensate them for injuries caused when the husband's leg was trapped under his Yamaha off-road vehicle. An attorney for the plaintiffs, C. Andrew Childers of Childers, Schlueter & Smith, said the Gwinnett case is one of the first to reach a verdict among product liability cases against Yamaha in the U.S. and Canada alleging defects in its Rhino-model recreational-utility vehicle. Childers and his colleagues pushed the case of Roger McTaggart of Blue Ridge, who was injured in a 2007 accident, to go first among the dozens filed in Gwinnett because it was a "middle-of-the-road case." "There was not an extreme, terrible injury," Childers said, noting that he wanted to see if a product liability claim against Yamaha was viable. The plaintiff "didn't have his leg severed or put into metal equipment," Childers said. "He didn't even break it, but we still won the case." The plaintiffs filed many of the cases in Gwinnett because the registered agent for Yamaha Motor Corp. USA is located in Gwinnett County, Childers said. McTaggart was driving his Rhino and stopped the vehicle. He then starting going forward again and turned the steering wheel to the right, "and the Rhino tipped onto the driver's side, trapping his leg under the vehicle," according to McTaggart's complaint. McTaggart sustained a "crush" injury in which the "skin exploded" and bone was exposed, Childers said. McTaggart's attorneys described the area where the incident occurred as "an uneven, relatively flat, grassy area," according to the complaint. Yamaha's attorneys disputed that description, citing two expert witnesses called by the plaintiffs. One of those witnesses said that for the accident to happen the way McTaggart described, it would have needed to happen "while driving along a hill," according to Yamaha's reply memo in support of their motion for summary judgment. A second expert called by McTaggart said the accident occurred "on a side slope," Yamaha said. McTaggart and his wife, Glenda, sued three separate Yamaha corporate entities in Gwinnett County State Court. Among their claims, they argued that the Yamaha Rhino should have included a barrier to contain a rider's legs inside the vehicle, Childers said. Although plaintiffs in cases filed against Yamaha in other courts have argued that there are problems with the Rhino's stability which cause the vehicle to roll over, that argument was not made in the Gwinnett case, Childers said. |
Source: Jury Awards $317K in Yamaha Test Case
