Nissan Product Liability Lawsuits Filed Over Defective Car Seats

Nissan faces two new product liability lawsuits, which claim that the car maker’s seats were poorly designed and failed during accidents, resulting in paralysis and death for two plaintiffs.

The complaints were filed earlier this month in California. One of the lawsuits was brought by the family of Brook David Boynton, who died after a rear-end collision near Laguna Beach in October 2009. The other was filed by Philip Bloom, who was paralyzed in a head-on collision near Victorville the same month.

Both auto defect lawsuits allege that the Nissan seats the men were in at the time of the accident came apart during impact.

The Boynton lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court by his mother and the administrator of his estate. According to the complaint, Boynton was properly restrained while driving a 2004 Nissan Murano when he was struck from behind. The seat disintegrated under him, causing him to fall backwards and be ejected from the vehicle. The catastrophic seat failure rendered the restraints useless and Boynton died a few minutes after being hurled from the car.

Bloom was a passenger in the back seat of a 2005 Nissan Xterra when that vehicle was involved in a head-to-head crash with another car. The lawsuit claims that the rear seat cushion of the Xterra also suffered a catastrophic failure and broke from its floor bracket. This allowed Bloom to be tossed violently around the interior of the car. He suffered a number of abdominal injuries, bone fractures and spinal damage, causing permanent paraplegia.

The lawsuits claim Nissan skimped on safety and designed defective seats to save money, resulting in the plaintiffs’ injuries and death.

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