Our product liability lawyers negotiated a cash and annuity settlement having a present value of $5.25 million on behalf of the surviving widow and two minor children of a 42-year-old fire captain who was killed when his SUV rolled over on Highway 50 while pulling an “ultralight” travel trailer. The plaintiffs claimed that the defendant motorhome retailer inappropriately sold the family a trailer that was too large to be safely pulled by their small SUV.
The defendants claimed that had the decedent read the owner’s manuals for his vehicle and the trailer, he would have observed warnings in both manuals regarding overloading and that by weighing the vehicles, he could have avoided the situation that produced his death. The settlement was reached after three medications.