Shaffer v. Case v. General Motors Corporation

August 2, 2004

RESULT: $ 1,125,000.00 jury verdict against General Motors Corporation. A Motion for Delay Damages in the amount of $ 520,935.44 is pending. The jury determined that General Motors Corporation was 100% responsible for the crash.

STATE: Pennsylvania

SUMMARY: On December 16, 1995, a 1994 Blazer manufactured by General Motors Corporation slowly rolled through a stop sign at the intersection of Routes 19 and 519 in Washington County, Pennsylvania, in front of a vehicle operated by the Plaintiff father, Harry Shaffer. In the ensuing collision, he suffered a neck injury, his wife Christina suffered a fracture in her lower back, which required a fusion, and their daughter, Sarah suffered a lip laceration. The remaining minor child was not injured physically, but was terrified by the crash.

Suit was filed on behalf of the Plaintiffs against Charles P. Case, a CPA who was operating the Blazer, who in turn filed a third party Complaint against General Motors Corporation contending that the ABS brake system on his vehicle (an EBC-4, 3-sensor system common to General Motors, Jimmy's, Blazers and other vehicles from model years 1991 through 1996) was defective and had prevented him from stopping in time to avoid the crash.

The action against Charles P. Case was settled by the Plaintiffs for about $ 900,000.00 and the matter proceeded to trial against Charles P. Case and General Motors.

General Motors Corporation had two former employees testify as experts that the vehicles were not unsafe and that a problem found by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to exist in the vehicles was not a "safety concern."