Jury Decides DaimlerChrysler Not at Fault in Catalina Island Accident

2 April 1999

    LOS ANGELES, April 1 -- It took a Los Angeles County jury
just over four hours today to exonerate DaimlerChrysler in a $16 million
product liability lawsuit.
    The lawsuit stemmed from the death of Laura Stein on May 27, 1993, in an
accident on Catalina Island.
    "Ms. Stein's death was a tragedy," said DaimlerChrysler's Assistant
General Counsel Steve Hantler.  "We have contended from the beginning of this
lawsuit that this was never an issue of a product defect, but rather the
invention of a trial attorney in an attempt to explain away the obvious:  this
was a car accident."
    Ms. Stein was traveling above the speed limit at 35 to 43 miles per hour
on a dangerous, narrow, unguarded stretch of road.  When she was unable to
negotiate a turn, her vehicle crashed into a nearly two-foot high berm and
shot off a cliff.
    Plaintiff's counsel contended that the steering sector shaft broke on the
Dodge Ram 150 Van prior to the berm hit, but the jury accepted
DaimlerChrysler's argument that the accident caused the shaft to break.
    "The jurors indicated after trial that it was obvious that what had
happened was clearly not the result of any defect," Hantler said.