Fiat Chrysler Appeals Verdict in Fatal Jeep Fire - Wall Street Journal
NV appealed a Georgia judge’s decision to uphold a verdict in a trial stemming from a fatal Jeep fire, prolonging a battle over legal damages facing the auto maker. On Monday, Fiat Chrysler appealed the decision, which kept intact a jury verdict holding the company almost entirely responsible for the fatal fire while reducing damages to $40 million from $150 million, according to documents filed in a... The Italian-American auto maker appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals after losing a roughly two-week trial earlier this year arising from a lawsuit filed by the parents of a 4-year-old boy killed in a fiery rear-end Jeep crash. A jury in April awarded $150 million in damages to ’s family after finding Fiat Chrysler acted with reckless or wanton disregard in the design or sale of a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a rear fuel tank, and failed to warn the vehicle was hazardous. The gas tank leaked and caught fire after the Jeep was rear-ended by a pickup truck in March 2012, and the Walden boy died in the ensuing blaze. Fiat Chrysler faulted those lawyers for discussing Chief Executive ’s income and for suggesting the company should have been imprisoned instead of the driver whose pickup truck rear-ended the Jeep. Source: www.wsj.com
