$32.2M Goodyear Tire Blowout Verdict Upheld by the Nevada Supreme Court

Submitted by Lawson on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 15:08

For the past few blog posts, you probably noticed my interest in product liability cases. Today I'd like to talk about Goodyear tires. Over the past 2 decades these tires have been in some back and forth battles about product liability. In my post about product liability insurance I mentioned how different business categories are at different degrees of risk when it comes to their products and need a policy reflecting that degree of exposure.

In the case of Goodyear, it seems the tires were faulty to begin with. However, it's one of those situations where tires are supposed to wear out over time due to normal usage. It seems Goodyear's tires were doing something funny when it came to thread separation.

Hopefully Goodyear has some policy protection since it seems many more people have been filing claims against this tire company.

I'm guessing some form of testing was done to evaluate the defects in Goodyear tires, since I have no idea how the jump can be made to Goodyear is liable without properly looking into the circumstances of an accident.

In either case, my condolences go out to the family, and I pray you're not
using any of these defective tires on your vehicle.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"Once again, the Nevada Supreme Court has rejected attempts by Goodyear to overturn a $32.2 million defective tire verdict against it in the wrongful case filed by the surviving family members of three people killed in a 2004 Utah 15-passenger van crash. The plaintiffs have said that the deadly auto accident was caused by a tire blowout that caused the vehicle to overturn on I-70. "

Source: http://www.productliabilitylawblog.com/2011/01/322m_goodyear_tire_blowo…

Let me know what you think about this case... Have you ever purchased Goodyear tires?