$248 million verdict handed down in Hyundai case
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POLSON – Hyundai Motor Company vowed last week to appeal a Lake County jury’s decision to award $248.6 million to families of two teens killed in a 2011 Arlee crash.
After two weeks of testimony, the jury spent more than a day deliberating the verdict which required eight jurors to come to a consensus on whether or not a defective steering knuckle caused the 2005 Hyundai Tiburon to swerve into oncoming traffic and collide with a 2002 Grand Am.
The Tiburon’s driver, 19-year-old Trevor Olson, and his passenger, 14-year-old Tanner Olson, were killed in the crash, as was Stephanie Nicole Parker-Shepherd, 21, passenger in the Grand Am.
Shepherd’s husband Vincent Shepherd was severely injured in the crash. The couple’s two young children were also injured. The Shepherd family was not involved in this suit.
Family members cried and hugged inside the courtroom as the verdict assigning blame to the defective steering knuckle was read. Each parent of both Tanner and Trevor Olson were awarded $1 million. Each full sibling of the boys was awarded $500,000. The parents of Trevor also received approximately $2.6 million for his lost lifetime earnings. In total, damages awarded were approximately $8.6 million. In addition, the jury determined punitive damages should be assigned as punishment to deter Hyundai from manufacturing defective products in the future.
In a separate and immediate hearing, Hyundai attorney David Prichard argued that no punitive damages should be imposed on Hyundai because the company intended to do a comprehensive analysis based on the jury’s findings.
“We’ve heard you loud and clear,” Prichard told the jury, and promised to have an engineer immediately begin studying the defective knuckles.
A long lecture on how the company is committed to corporate responsibility and funds cancer research followed, over objections from the Olson’s attorneys that the testimony was unrelated. Olson attorney Mark Williams pointed out that Hyundai would not apologize for the accident, even after the verdict came in.
Williams also noted that Hyundai refused to provide the company’s net worth to the court in United States dollars, so the jury could understand how much in damages it would take to punish the company. Trevor Olson’s father, David Olson, had to conduct the currency conversions and take to the witness stand.
Olson is senior vice president of First Interstate Bank in Missoula and found Hyundai Motor America to be worth $2.3 billion. Parent company Hyundai Motor Company was estimated to be worth $46.7 billion.
Williams told the jury that the deaths of the Olson cousins had cost their families $8 million and asked that both the American subsidiary and parent company each pay $80 million. Williams argued that $160 million is far less than the estimated $2 billion it would have cost to recall the 5 million Hyundai vehicles on the road with the same steering knuckles as the crashed Tiburon.
The jury’s verdict took about an hour. Hyundai Motor Company was assigned $150 million in punitive damages. Hyundai Motor America was assigned $90 million.
The Olson family had little to say about the victory as it left the courthouse, although there was a small smattering of applause as the jury exited the courtroom.
“The jury worked hard and we appreciate their verdict,” Williams said.
In a statement a day later Hyundai called the verdict “outrageous,” and promised to immediately appeal.
With or without an appeal it is unclear if the punitive damage assessment will hold water. Montana caps punitive damages at $10 million, but that rule is currently under appeal by a Butte judge that says the cap is too small to punish large companies.
