Calif. Kia store settles with motorcyclist hurt in crash

A Southern California Kia store has reached a confidential settlement after a jury awarded $21,503,420 to a motorcyclist hurt in a crash caused by a negligent technician.

A jury in Los Angeles County Superior Court ordered Kia of Irvine to pay damages to Matthew Rada, who suffered catastrophic injuries when a service customer's 2015 Optima crashed into his motorcycle on a freeway in February 2018.

Technician Justin Dimapasac was doing a road test after repairing the Optima, Rada's lawyer, Andrew Owen of Los Angeles, told Fixed Ops Journal. Owen said Dimapasac no longer works at the store.

Dimapasac testified in a deposition that he was the sole cause of the crash when he illegally crossed the HOV double parallel boundary lines, failed to signal before leaving the lane and drove alone in the HOV lane, according to a statement from Owen's law firm.

The Optima struck Rada as it left the HOV lane on the northbound 405 freeway. The impact sent Rada "careening across three lanes of traffic and into a passing flatbed trailer, which then launched him off his motorcycle and onto the freeway pavement," the statement read.

Kia of Irvine admitted its liability for negligence, and the question for the jury was the "nature and extent" of Rada's damages, Owen said. The jury deliberated for two hours at the end of a three-day trial.

"The parties reached a confidential post- verdict settlement that resolves the case in its entirety," he said.

A service customer who claims tools were stolen from his truck while it was parked at a Victoria, British Columbia, dealership isn't entitled to compensation, the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal ruled.

Murray Steen accused Wheaton Chevrolet-Buick-Cadillac-GMC of negligently leaving his 2013 Chevrolet Avalanche unlocked or, alternatively, being responsible for an employee's theft of the tools last year. He claimed the tools had been in a lockbox that could be opened only with the key fob or with switches inside the vehicle.

Rejecting the $2,891 claim, tribunal member Trisha Apland said Steen failed to show that the dealership had left the Avalanche unlocked or that the tools were stolen at all. Steen "provided no witness statements, police evidence or other evidence to corroborate his claim that he had tools in the lockbox and that his tools were stolen," she said.

Apland also ruled that the waiver of liability Steen signed bars his claim. Although he asserted that the waiver "was buried in fine print," Apland said "it was clearly written and there to be seen in the same sentence as the work authorization and on the same page and section as the signature line."

She added that Steen's decision to not read the waiver before signing it "does not render it invalid or inapplicable. The waiver simply meant he needed to either remove his personal belongings or leave them at his own risk."

Brant Roshinsky, the dealership's general manager, said warning signs are posted in the lot.

A Waynesboro, Pa., store must defend a negligence suit by a truck driver who was hurt while unloading parts he was delivering from Fiat Chrysler, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner rejected a bid by Buchanan Auto Park to dismiss the suit filed by Frank Ramsey Jr. The store sells Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram vehicles.

According to the Jan. 14 decision, Ramsey was pushing a wheeled cage filled with parts in September 2014 when the wheels hit a short shallow ditch and started tilting. He claims he got injured while jiggling the cage free from the ditch.

His suit accuses the dealership of negligence for maintaining an unsafe premises. The store denies liability and argues that Ramsey's behavior in shaking the wheeled cage was the ultimate cause of his injuries.

Conner ruled that a jury should decide that question at trial.

However, the judge did dismiss Ramsey's claims against FCA for negligence and breach of warranty, finding no "objective evidence" that the cage's wheels were defective. Only Ramsey's own "speculation" supported those claims, he said.

A British Columbia dealership has been hit with a $4,701 (Canadian) award of damages for its faulty repair work on a replacement engine.

The province's Civil Resolution Tribunal issued the judgment in favor of service customer Michael Pennock, who claimed Kamloops Hyundai damaged the transmission of his 2013 Santa Fe while doing warranty work in late 2018.

Dealer principal Anthony Muzzillo said there will be no appeal.

Nine days after Pennock picked up the Santa Fe from the store, he found that the crossover had little traction because of problems with the all-wheel drive, according to the Nov. 4 decision by tribunal Vice Chair Andrea Ritchie. He took it to a different dealership, which replaced the awd rear coupling, but the problem persisted.

Pennock returned to Kamloops Hyundai, where a diagnostic test showed that the cause was severe spline damage. He was told to replace the transmission.

Kamloops Hyundai denied responsibility and attributed the problem to wear and tear.

But Ritchie's ruling in favor of the customer cited evidence from a longtime Red Seal mechanic who blamed the transmission failure on negligence by dealership employees "during the assembly stage of the engine replacement."

In the mechanic's expert opinion, there was "a misalignment of the internal components of the transmission and transfer case during the assembly stage of the engine replacement, while the two components' housings were bolted together," the decision said. "During an engine disassembly, a technician would have thoroughly inspected the components and would have noticed if there was any noticeable signs of 'normal wear.' "

The damages cover Pennock's expenses for diagnostic testing and transmission replacement.