JURY ORDERS CHRYSLER TO PAY $262 MILLION IN BOY'S DEATH.

Byline: Bruce Smith Associated Press 

A jury Wednesday ordered Chrysler Corp. to pay $262.5 million to the parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed when he was thrown from the family minivan in a crash because a rear latch was defective.

The $12.5 million in actual damages and $250 million in punitive damages awarded to the parents of Sergio Jimenez II was the largest award against the automaker, a company spokesman said.

``I can't even talk,'' said the boy's father, Sergio Jimenez, a mason with three other children. ``I didn't expect anything this big. I never thought it would be like this.''

Chrysler spokesman Mike Aberlich said the company would appeal.

``We believe that the outrageously large punitive damage award shows that the jury was unduly influenced by the highly emotional nature of the circumstances of the accident,'' said Aberlich.

The wrongful-death lawsuit stemmed from an April 1994 accident in North Charleston. Sergio was riding in the back seat of his family's 1985 Dodge Caravan when it was hit in the rear on the driver's side by another vehicle going about 5 mph, the lawsuit said.

The impact caused the van to spin, roll over and land on its wheels, and Sergio was thrown out when the latch on the rear liftgate failed, the lawsuit said.

The jury in U.S. District Court said Chrysler was negligent in the design and testing of the minivan and that negligence on the part of the company led to the boy's death.

``Chrysler knew about the defect and covered up the defect while at the same time advertising its minivans to American families as safe,'' said the family's lawyer, David Dwares.

Aberlich said that the driver of the Jimenezes' van ran a red light, and that the force of the collision threw the boy, who was not wearing a seat belt, out of the side window, not through the lift gate opening.

The family denies that the van ran a red light, and the trial judge refused to allow evidence about the traffic signal, Dwares said.

Nonetheless, one legal expert said the verdict was based on the company's negligence, not the driver's.

``The jury has said Chrysler has done something bad . . . and they deserve to be punished for that,'' said Richard S. Seidel, a Philadelphia lawyer who has litigated several automotive defect cases.

At least 37 passengers were killed in accidents in which they were ejected when the rear liftgates opened on Chrysler Town and Country, Dodge Caravan or Plymouth Voyager minivans sold from 1984 through 1995, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records. At least 134 back-seat passengers have been ejected.

Auto safety advocates criticized the highway safety agency for allowing Chrysler to repair the minivans under a ``service campaign'' rather than an official recall, which would have required Chrysler to use stronger wording in telling owners the latch poses a safety problem.

In February, government records showed that fewer than half the rear latches on 4.1 million Chrysler minivans were replaced during the first 15 months of the automaker's repair campaign.