Articles Posted in Virginia

Here are 5 interesting Virginia jury verdicts in 2015 that you might find interesting:

$13,000 Settlement – A 31-year-old man is driving his car on the highway at a rate of around 60 mph. He approaches an intersection where a woman driving a pickup truck is attempting to make a turn in the middle of the intersection. She starts to travel out into the intersection but stops upon seeing another driver’s car trying to make a left turn in front of her. Contact was unavoidable at that point, and the woman clips the man’s tires. He immediately complains of neck pain and is transported to the hospital via EMS, where doctors diagnose him with soft tissue injuries. He sues both of the involved drivers, claiming that they were negligent in the operation of their vehicles. The defendants contend that plaintiffs injuries were actually from a motorcycle accident that he sustained years ago. Prior to trial, the parties settle for $13,000.

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In Funkhouser v. Ford Motor, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld a products liability wrongful death suit against Ford arising from an electrical fire in the Ford Windstar.

Facts

The facts in this one are just plain awful. Three-year-old twins were playing in their parents’ 2001 Ford Windstar. The engine was off and the keys were not in the ignition. As a parent, you really do feel pretty safe in that situation with three-year-old’s because the cars are made to be kid-proof on that level. A fire erupted in the passenger compartment of the van. One child suffered significant burns and died later that day.

In August 2007, the administrator of Emily’s estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Ford alleging a design defect in the electrical connector behind the dashboard caused the fire. However, after Ford was granted a motion to exclude evidence of other Windstar fires, the lawsuit was dismissed. But the family refiled the wrongful death lawsuit against Ford, alleging negligence and breach of implied warranty. The lawsuit claimed that Ford failed to adequately warn consumers about the fire hazards in Windstar vans when they are parked with the engine off and no key in the ignition.

Plaintiff filed a wrongful death product liability lawsuit against Ford, contending that Ford did not properly warn consumers about the fire hazard in Windstar vans when they are parked with the engine off and no key in the ignition.

Evidence that Ford Knew

Plaintiff wanted to introduce evidence of seven other similar fires in the wrongful death lawsuit. The point being that since Ford knew of the problem, whatever the cause might be, it should tell consumers. Because other Ford Windstar fires that happened before this tragedy show Ford was aware or should have been aware of the danger of electrical fires in the dashboard of the Windstar vans when the engine was off and the keys were not in the ignition. Ford countered that the plaintiff did not prove that the causes of these other fires were substantially similar to the cause of the subject fire.

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You get a big verdict. Defendant’s big bone of contention on appeal is an evidentiary issue. When this happens, and it has happened to me a number of times, you are feeling pretty good about your chances. Particularly when the standard is – as it is for most evidentiary issues – an abuse of discretion.

There were some Virginia lawyers probably feeling the same way. That is until last week when the Virginia high court flipped their $18 million verdict against Exxon.

Plaintiff got a wrongful death verdict against Exxon in a lawsuit involving a man who developed mesothelioma while working on Exxon ships. Suffice to say, the jury was not happy with Exxon, awarding $12 million in compensatory damages, $12.5 million in punitive damages and nearly a half a million in medical damages. The punitive damage award was knocked back to $5 million, still leaving the plaintiff with a nearly $18 million verdict.

This blog post was originally what I have a the bottom of this post now: a quick summary of a large verdict against IKEA in Virginia.  Updating this post in 2020, I realized people would be more interested in seeing sample settlements and verdicts against IKEA than short summary of a case that is years old.

IKEA Verdicts and Settlements

• 2020, Pennsylvania: $46,000,000 Settlement. A 2-year-old boy died of suffocation after an IKEA MALM dresser fell over and trapped him. The dresser was recalled because its defective design rendered it unstable. His parents purchased it before the recall announcement. They sued IKEA, alleging that the dresser’s faulty design caused their son’s death. The parents claimed that the dresser did not comply with national safety standards. IKEA countered their claims by arguing that the dresser’s instructions recommended anchoring it to a wall to prevent tip-overs. The parents refuted IKEA, arguing that the instructions did not advise that it was necessary to anchor a dresser to a wall to prevent it from tipping over. Despite being members of IKEA’s rewards program, the parents also alleged that IKEA failed to contact them about the defect and recall. This case settled for $46,000,000. The parents, bless them, donated $1,000,000 of their award to three public safety organizations that protect children from defective products.