Takata's Murky Admission

Plaintiffs lawyers praised Takata Corp.’s admission last week that a defect was causing its air bags to spontaneously rupture, but they insisted that the company still hasn’t gotten to the root of the problem, which they hope to reveal through discovery in more than 100 pending cases. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on May 19 the record recall of 34 million vehicles to replace defective inflators that could cause Takata air bags to explode. The announcement doubles last year’s regional recalls involving 10 automobile manufacturers, including Honda, BMW and Nissan. It’s also the first time that Takata, whose vice president for global quality assurance, Hiroshi Shimizu, appeared on Capitol Hill last fall, has admitted that a defect exists. The company says it continues to investigate a single cause of the problem.

That’s not enough for plaintiffs lawyers to prove in court that Takata is liable for making a defective product, said Carl Tobias, a torts professor at the University of Richmond School of Law. “There’s something wrong with the vehicle’s air bags, but it’s not exactly clear what it is, and that could be critical to the litigation,” he said.