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Mitsubishi to Pay Family of Accident Victim $11 Million
March 03, 2008

Mitsubishi Motors has been ordered by a jury to pay $11 million as compensatory damages to the family of a young man who died in a accident involving the company's Montero SUV.

The victim, Scott LaLiberte, was a 25-year-old chiropractic student. On the day of the accident, Scott was riding his friend's SUV on I- 95 near Daytona Beach, Florida when the driver lost control. The SUV rolled over. Scott was wearing the Montero's newly designed seatbelts with slack. Even with his seatbelt on, Scott was catapulted towards the back and ejected from the rear window. He suffered a severe head injury and died from the impact. His friend walked away unhurt.

His parents, Donna and Peter LaLiberte, filed a lawsuit that alleged that Mitsubishi went ahead and put its Montero SUV on the market, all the time fully aware that there were serious defects in it. Not only that, the company, after it found about the problems, released a new model of the vehicle in 2000 without ordering a recall or even making it known that there could be any defects in the previous model.

Such behavior isn't all that surprising coming from Mitsubishi. This is the once iconic company that has found itself being entangled in its own web of deceit and lies. In 2000 the scandal that erupted had company executives at the highest level openly admitting that they had hidden defects in their vehicles for decades. It seems to have been some sort of policy at the company and everyone was in on the secret. Those who knew were reportedly threatened to keep the silence about sordid goings on at the company. Reports of dozens of accidents involving its vehicles were ignored by the company that made no effort to recall any of them or even admit that there could be anything wrong.

Such corruption and deceit is what has resulted in the death of Scott LaLiberte. Lawyers for Mitsubishi reportedly tried every trick to pin blame for Scott's death on the speed of the car and other factors. The jury obviously didn't buy it for a second. The Laliberte's lawyers also pointed to the fact that the front seat reclined at the time of the impact, throwing Scott out of the rear window. The reclining seat combined with the defective seatbelt design were together responsible for Scott's death, attorneys argued. As soon as Mitsubishi found out about the flawed seatbelts in its models, it did what it normally did in such times of crises - it swept the messy car under the carpet and went right ahead and introduced a newer model - without the flawed seatbelt - and left thousands of customers who had already purchased the earlier flawed seatbelt carrying models to fend for themselves. There was not a word of caution and no warning at all given to drivers.

The Laliberte's attorney was right when he said only money speaks in corporate America. The family had earlier demanded a settlement of $26 million, and it was argued that a hefty settlement could be the only thing that could strike unscrupulous automakers where it hurts - their balance sheet. With Mitsubishi's admission of letting defective vehicles roll out of shop floors, we can expect more such cases to come up in future.

If you have been injured by a defective car part, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury law firm. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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