Philip L. Harris, Holland & Knight LLP for defendant General Motors; James K. Toohey, Ross & Hardies for defendant Hufco-Delaware Company; and Jennifer Johnson, Tressler, Soderstrom, for defendant Anaa Dibendetto.

On June 25, 1998, Kimberly Palka was stopped on Bartlett Road allowing approaching traffic to pass as she was preparing to make a left-hand turn when defendant Anna Dibenedetto traveling in the same direction as Ms. Palka turned to speak to her daughter in the back seat and therefore failed to see Ms. Palka and collided with the rear end of her vehicle. Ms. Palka was driving a 1996 Chevrolet Barrette at the time of the accident and Ms. Dibenedetto was driving a Jeep. In the rear seat of Ms. Palka’s vehicle directly behind the driver’s seat was her daughter Courtney Palka, age 2, properly belted in a child seat. In the right rear was her sister, Alyssa, age 4, who was properly restrained in a child booster seat. As a result of the collision, the survival space in the rear of the Chevrolet Barrette was reduced by over 60% on the driver’s side of the vehicle where Courtney was seated in her child seat. Courtney received significant brain damage as a result of the accident rendering her blind and quadriplegic. Courtney’s sister and her mother were uninjured in the accident. Ms. Dibenedetto and her daughter were also uninjured in the accident.

Plaintiffs’ sued General Motors for the defective design and manufacturer of the rear end of the 1996 Chevrolet Berretta. According to plaintiffs’ experts, the rear end of the Berretta (an “L” car) was defectively designed and was known by General Motors to perform very poorly in rear end crash tests. Years before the manufacture of this vehicle, General Motors had proposed alternative designs for the rear ends of its “L” cars and its other cars of similar size that would have prevented the intrusion of the Jeep driven by defendant Dibenedetto into the 1996 Berretta which caused the injuries of Courtney Palka. More importantly, plaintiffs sued General Motors on the theory of a manufacturing defect due to the fact that up to 50% of the welds were defective on the subject vehicle. Plaintiffs’ metallurgist was able to determine that as a result of these defective welds, the rear end of the Berretta was not able to withstand the crash forces in the subject accident. To demonstrate the defectiveness of the welds in the 1996 Berretta, plaintiffs purchased vehicles that came off the assembly line just before and just after the subject vehicle for testing of the welds. Plaintiffs’ metallurgist determined that up to 50% of the welds on these two cars were also defective.

Life Care Plan: $15,258,788.00
 

Settled for confidential amounts with all three parties on July 20, 2001.