Goodyear Tire Blow Out Lawsuit Verdict of $32M Will Stand

An attempt to overturn a $32.2 million verdict in a Goodyear Tire blow out lawsuit was rejected last week by the Nevada Supreme Court. 

The state’s highest court refused to review a prior decision to uphold the judgment in the wrongful death lawsuit, which was filed by the surviving relatives of three people killed in a 2004 auto accident in Moab, Utah, which also injured seven others. Plaintiffs alleged that the fatal crash was caused by a tire blow out that caused the vehicle to flip.

The accident resulted in the deaths of Evertina Tapia, Andres Torres and Frank Enriquez. In the initial trial, a judge shut down Goodyear’s efforts to deny liability and only allowed the company to contest the amount of damages sought. Goodyear appealed the decision to the Nevada Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s decision twice.

Goodyear claimed that the company was denied due process and was the victim of a double standard between plaintiffs and defendants, saying that it was owed an evidentiary hearing on the liability sanction, which occurred during the discovery process of the tire blowout lawsuit. 

The refusal to rehear the case was the result of a 6-1 vote by the state’s high court. In the majority opinion, justices determined that no material matters were overlooked or misapplied..

The largest tire maker, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., currently faces a number of other tire tread separation lawsuits over problems with their Goodyear Long Range “E’ tires made between 1991 and 2000. According to reports last year, nearly 50 Goodyear tire product liability lawsuits have been filed over the tires, which are used on sport utility vehicles, pickups and vans. Plaintiffs in those cases claim that the tires are defective and have a propensity for tread separation.