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JOHNSON
COUNTY KANSAS VERDICT
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The jury found that the tire failure resulted from the combined
negligence of Firestone and Kansas East
Youth Services (“KEYS”), a not-forprofit youth organization
which failed to provide reasonable maintenance of the tire on
its van. Firestone settled the product liability claim shortly
before trial for aconfidential amount and the trial proceeded
against KEYS on the claim that it failed to provide reasonable
tire maintenance and inspection, and failed to take the tire out
of service when the tread was below 2/32’s of an inch, in
violation of Kansas law. Prior to trial, KEYS offered $85,000
to settle the case. The jury returned a verdict for $8,300,000,
apportioning 27% of the
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1991 Mazda MPV after tire
tread separation.
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fault to KEYS and 73% to Firestone.
The award included $2,000,000 in past and future non-economic damages,
$205,817 in past medical expenses, $3,388,245 in future medical
and supervisory care, and $2,777,850 in future economic loss.
The FR410 tire at issue was not part of the highly publicized recall
in 2000 of the Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires manufactured
at the Decatur, Illinois plant. Firestone made discovery difficult,
and withheld key documents until late in the case which revealed
numerous other tread separation failures on FR410 tires. Separately,
through many of our good friends and contacts across the United
States, we received copies of Firestone
documents disclosing changes in the amount of rubber used in the
Firestone FR410 tire as part of the Firestone “C95 Program”,
which increased profits at the expense of tire safety and performance.
This information led to a favorable pretrial settlement with Firestone,
and the case proceeded to trial solely against KEYS.
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The conditions leading to the tire
failure began in March of 1999 when KEYS received a donated MAZDA
MPV van to transport the children in KEYS’ care to locations
in Johnson County. KEYS operated the van until the tire failure
in August of 2000 without providing necessary maintenance to the
tires or implementing the necessary tire inspection program for
its fleet of vans. Six months before the accident, KEYS replaced
two of the van’s tires, but one of the old FR410 tires remained
in the right rear position on the van. KEYS continued using the
van for the next six months without having the tires inspected,
rotated or checked by anyone with special knowledge or experience
in tire care. At the time the Firestone FR410 tire on the right
rear wheel position developed the tread separation, it had approximately
60,000-70,000 miles of wear, some 10,000-20,000 miles past Firestone’s
limited warranty.
At trial KEYS asked for a comparison of fault against Firestone
pursuant toK.S.A. § 60-258a and produced the
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