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Hyundai to appeal $8 million award Wednesday, January 25, 2006 By ERIK ROBINSON, Columbian staff writer Automaker Hyundai announced Tuesday it intends to fight an $8 million default judgment issued Friday by Clark County Superior Court Judge Barbara Johnson. In the ruling against Hyundai Motor America, Johnson rebuked the automaker for failing to disclose seat-back failures in cases similar to a 1997 accident that paralyzed Jesse Magana of Vancouver. A retrial on Magana's 2002 trial, which resulted in the biggest jury award in Clark County history, had been scheduled to start Monday. A state appellate court ruled Johnson erred in the first trial when she didn't tell jurors to disregard testimony from a witness. However, Johnson pulled the plug on the retrial after finding that Hyundai and its attorneys failed to promptly disclose information requested by Magana's attorneys. In preparation for the retrial, the plaintiff's attorneys renewed a request that Hyundai disclose any prior claims related to seat failures of the kind that occurred in Magana's accident. The company ultimately disclosed almost 50 such incidents, only weeks before the retrial was to start. "A fair trial on the merits is not possible at this time, given the posture of this case," Johnson said Friday. "The failure to disclose in a timely manner was highly prejudicial to the entire process, both to the plaintiff and to the entire system." In a written statement read by spokesman Miles Johnson in Fountain Valley, Calif., Hyundai stated that it is confident the state Court of Appeals will overturn Johnson's ruling. "Hyundai believes the judge's decision is incorrect and unfair to Hyundai," Johnson said. "Hyundai is disappointed that the trial court has deprived Hyundai of its right to a jury trial. Hyundai is confident that it would have prevailed if the jury had been allowed to decide the case." A hearing in which Johnson will issue her written ruling is set for Feb. 2. Eric Bolton, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said this week that federal officials found no other reported cases in which Hyundai seat backs failed in the manner described in Magana's case. Magana's attorneys said they intend to disclose the information dredged up in their case to federal transportation officials. "That would be good for us to be aware of," Bolton said. Magana, 47, said he hopes the ruling in his case leads to a recall of seat backs used in Hyundai models during the 1990s and the year 2000. Jurors in the 2002 case determined Magana, who was sitting in the right front passenger seat, was flung out the back of the Hyundai hatchback when his seat back collapsed. "We'll leave it up to the government to decide whether there should be a recall, but we certainly think it's worth their consideration," said Peter O'Neil, a Seattle attorney representing Magana. It won't be a simple matter to get the federal government to order a recall, said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer-rights organization in Washington, D.C. Although Ditlow said the number of cases 47 raised in the Magana case "strikes me as a high number," he said weak seat backs are not unique to Hyundai automobiles. "The agency is very reluctant to order a recall when other vehicles have the same flaw," he said. Ditlow added that it's likely that his organization will explore the matter further, in light of the disclosures in Magana's case. He said the center would first try to determine whether Hyundai seat backs are "the worst of a bad lot" before petitioning the federal government for a recall. Update Previously: Clark County Superior Court Judge Barbara Johnson on Friday ordered an $8 million default judgment for Jesse Magana, a Vancouver man paralyzed in a 1997 accident involving a 1996 Hyundai Accent. What's new: The company announced Tuesday it will appeal Johnson's ruling in the case, the biggest jury award in Clark County history.
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