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.

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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.

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdjsb7/ / CC BY 2.0

3 Comments

  • LilianaFebruary 15, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    We had an accident yesterday, we were driving our Nissan Rogue when another car hit us on the back, destroying the entire trunk. My husband was driving and his car seat broke immediately. The air bags didn’t even explote either. I have 8 months of pregnancy. Even thought we don’t have major injuries, just thinking on what happened yesterday and looking at the pictures, i feel sick to my stomach. [Show More]We had an accident yesterday, we were driving our Nissan Rogue when another car hit us on the back, destroying the entire trunk. My husband was driving and his car seat broke immediately. The air bags didn’t even explote either. I have 8 months of pregnancy. Even thought we don’t have major injuries, just thinking on what happened yesterday and looking at the pictures, i feel sick to my stomach. I wonder what’s the process here, why my husband’s car seat got broken and why the air bags didn’t protect us. Has anyone had any experience with these kind of accidents with Nissan ?

  • PatriciaJuly 1, 2016 at 4:02 pm

    We are currently going through the same thing now with our Nissan Armada. I need to find a lawyer. Twice it has occured with the passenger seat second row. And my kid could have received an injury if he sat there just yesterday. I took it in to fix a day before that. They blamed my kids for gunk and junk in the way. I asked them.to show me....They refused to. Then told me to clean it out after t[Show More]We are currently going through the same thing now with our Nissan Armada. I need to find a lawyer. Twice it has occured with the passenger seat second row. And my kid could have received an injury if he sat there just yesterday. I took it in to fix a day before that. They blamed my kids for gunk and junk in the way. I asked them.to show me....They refused to. Then told me to clean it out after they claimed they did the day I.took it in to fix it. This is all under warranty too. I'm keeping records.

  • DeloresMay 14, 2013 at 2:21 am

    I have a 2006 Nissan Murano which I love driving; however, two days ago the front driver side seat broke and I've discovered other Nissan owners have experienced the same problem. It's time Nissan do a recall and fix this problem before more people are killed or maimed. I'm ready to join all who've been affected by this defect and the company needs to be held accountable. Thank you.

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