Misener v. General Motors - Capturing the Holy Grail
In July of 1996, a federal court jury returned a $7 million gross verdict and $1,050,000 net verdict against General Motors in a crashworthiness case. The remaining portion of the verdict was assessed to the driver who had previously settled for policy limits of $1.2 million (Jeffrey D. Eisenberg and Colin P. King of Wilcox, Dewsnup & King tried the case for the plaintiffs).
In 1991, Lynn Misener was a passenger in a 14-year-old Chevrolet Blazer when the driver lost control on a remote stretch of Interstate 40. The vehicle went off the road and rolled three times, ejecting both the driver and the passenger. Lynn sustained a terrible closed-head injury, which requires her to be institutionalized for life.
When I saw photographs of the vehicle at the scene, what struck me was that most of the Blazer was relatively undamaged, but the roof had broken off during the rollover. After talking to the parents and several of Lynn’s friends, another curious issue came up. Lynn’s family and friends reported that she was obsessive about seat-belts and would go no place in a vehicle without having her belt on. A short while after, the accident reconstruction expert I had retained reported that he saw signs on the seat-belt suggesting that the belts may have released during the accident.
At that time, I knew I had an interesting case on my hands. What I didn’t know yet was that I was about to embark upon a search for the Holy Grail – evidence of “inertial unlatching” of seat belts from the files of General Motors Proving Grounds.
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This article was written by Jeff Eisenberg, for more information please click here.
