Court overturns award in GM fuel-tank case; retrial to follow.

A Georgia appeals court has overturned a $105 million verdict against General Motors--one of the largest awards ever in a products liability lawsuit--because plaintiffs' lawyers improperly referred to other GM truck fires at the first trial.

The decision clears the way for a new trial, but no date has been set.

Attorneys for GM and attorneys for Thomas and Elaine Moseley, the parents who sued the automaker after their 17-year-old son Shannon's death in the fiery crash of a GM pickup, all expressed confidence their clients would prevail upon the return to Fulton County State Court.

The appellate court on June 13 found that, during the 1993 negligence trial, the Moseleys' attorneys repeatedly referred to 120 other accidents involving fires and GM trucks without linking evidence in those cases to the Moseley case. The court, however, found no fault with the size of the jury award itself, which included $101 million in punitive damages against GM. (Moseley v. General Motors Corp., No. 894-A-0826 and No. 894-A-0827 (Ga. Ct. App. June 13, 1994).)

GM spokesman Ed Lechtzin said the company was pleased with the decision. "It's a significant victory for us," he said. "We welcome a retrial. It will give us the chance to bring in new witnesses, and we've put together new data since the original trial that will make it an even better case for us."

The Moseleys' attorneys, led by James Butler of Columbus, Georgia, issued a statement expressing disappointment with the outcome. The statement said, however, that the lawyer team will now have the opportunity to introduce new evidence discovered since the first verdict was returned.

"At first blush it looks like a victory for General Motors, but the actual decision itself is much stronger for the plaintiff," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. "The court said the award was not too high, and it said, 'You, the attorney, just went about it in the wrong way. Do it again.'"

Before retrial, the Moseleys' attorneys will have to collect evidence from each of the 120 accidents involving the GM trucks' fuel-tank design if they hope to show a connection with Shannon Moseley's accident, Ditlow said.

The Center for Auto Safety, along with Public Citizen, failed in 1992 to force a recall of 6 million GM trucks equipped with sidesaddle fuel tanks, which attach to the outside of a truck's steel frame rails. Ditlow said that 60 people have died in accidents involving the fuel tanks since the consumer groups petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the recall.

The Moseleys sued GM after their son's pickup truck crashed into another vehicle in 1989, causing the fuel tank in Moseley's truck to explode. At trial, the Moseleys contended that GM's fuel tank design for its 1973 through 1987 model pickups was faulty and that the company knew it.

GM contended that the teenager died instantly from the impact of the crash rather than from the explosion and asserted that its engineers could not design a fuel system that would withstand a crash like Moseley's.

Several suits similar to Moseley have resulted in verdicts for the plaintiffs, but most resolved their claims through confidential settlement agreements. (See Jan Lewis, GM Pickups: Deception by Design, TRIAL, Feb. 1993, at 77.)

"GM is settling cases left and right because it's desperate," Ditlow said. "General Motors has a choice. Either it can continue to pay settlements or save itself some money by recalling the trucks." GM estimates it would cost $2 billion for a recall. Ditlow estimates the cost would be closer to $200 million.