Stage Is Set at UGA Law School for Heated Arguments in Chrysler Case
Oral arguments on Chrysler's appeal have been set for a special session of the Georgia Supreme Court to be held at the University of Georgia School of Law.
October 11, 2017 at 01:07 PM
4 minute read
Thomas Dupree and Jim Butler
In the contentious litigation over a fatal Jeep gas tank explosion, oral arguments on Chrysler's appeal of the $150 million verdict—reduced to $40 million by the trial judge—have been set for a special session of the Georgia Supreme Court to be held at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Arguments are to be heard in the law school's Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom on the historic N orth Campus, starting at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 24.
The case has already yielded more than a dozen amicus briefs—some neutral and others in support of one side. Several came from business groups seeking to hold down the award, viewing the case as a test for the new court, which expanded from six to nine members at the start of this year.
The arguments will pit Chrysler's lead appellate counsel Thomas Dupree Jr., a Washington, D.C.-based partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, against a nationally known Georgia trial lawyer, Jim Butler Jr. of Butler Wooten & Peak.
Chrysler's team includes three lawyers from Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers in Atlanta: Mary Diane Owens, Bradley Wolff and Terry Brantley.
Butler's team includes other lawyers at his firm, plus his son Jeb Butler of Butler Tobin; appellate stars Michael Terry and Frank Lowrey of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore; and Mercer University School of Law Dean L. Catharine Cox, formerly Georgia secretary of state, president of Young Harris College and before that a lawyer in the town where the case was tried.
The nine-day trial in South Georgia's Bainbridge, before Decatur County Superior Court Judge J. Kevin Chason, took place in March and April of 2015. The jury took less than two hours to return a $150 verdict, consisting of $120 million for wrongful death and $30 million for the pain and suffering of 4-year-old Remi Walden, who died in his car seat in the back of a Jeep when it exploded after a rear-end crash that did not injure either driver.
Chason later reduced the judgment to $40 million, but Chrysler appealed. The Georgia Court of Appeals upheld the judgment in November 2016.
“What should have been a straightforward trial about vehicle design soon spiraled out of control, as the trial court allowed Plaintiffs to introduce evidence and make arguments that had no relevance to the issues the jury was asked to decide, but were intended to incite the jury's passions by whipping up prejudice against a large corporate defendant and to set the stage for the verdict that followed,” Chrysler argued in its brief filed with the Supreme Court.
Chrysler has sought to blame the driver of the other vehicle, Bryan Harrell, 32, of Brainbridge, who pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and is now in prison. But the Butler team successfully targeted the rear-mounted Jeep gas tank design. The jury placed 99 percent of the fault on Chrysler.
“Remington Walden burned to death because FCA/Chrysler placed the gas tank behind the rear axle of its Jeep. That was unnecessary: FCA stipulated that it could have located the gas tank midships, in front of the rear axle,” Butler wrote in his brief to the Georgia Supreme Court. “The evidence proved that Chrysler had long known that mounting a gas tank behind the rear axle was dangerous.”
The Walden brief said the jury determined that the company “acted with a reckless or wanton disregard for human life” and failed to warn of the hazard it created.
The case is Chrysler v. Walden, No. S17G0832.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllSanctions Order Over Toyota's Failure to Provide English Translations of Documents Vacated by Appeals Court
4 minute readBurr & Forman, Smith Gambrell & Russell Promote More to Partner This Year
7 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Winter Storm Triggers US Court Closures in DC Metro Area and Midwest
- 2‘Not a Regulatory Gray Area’: CFTC Secures $5M Settlement From Gemini
- 3Proskauer, Cleary, O’Melveny, Sidley Add Laterals, as New Year Opens with Movement
- 4Justice Department Enters Consent Decree With Fulton County Over Jail Conditions
- 5Baker & Hostetler Appoints New Office Leaders in Philadelphia, Chicago
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250