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Saturday, February 6, 1993
Judgment for Trucker Upheld
A
Rising City, Neb., truck driver and his wife won a $336,000
court judgment for injuries the truck driver received in a 1988
accident.
A
three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Denver let stand a 1991 verdict by a U.S. District Court jury in
favor of Virgil and Donna Stearns.
The
Circuit Court ruled against Paccar Inc., a Seattle-based
manufacturer of Peterbilt tractor-trailer trucks.
Stearns was injured when the Peterbilt truck he was driving lost
steering control and went off an embankment along Interstate 70
near Watkins, Colo. The Circuit Court upheld the jury's verdict
that the accident occurred when a steering linkage bolt failed.
Paccar's truck plant in Denton, Texas, deviated from its own
quality control procedures after running out of steering linkage
bolts in 1987 by getting replacements from an unapproved supplier,
the court said.
Later, Peterbilt discovered that some of the replacement bolts
were defective. One of the defective bolts was installed in
Stearns' truck before the defect was discovered, the court said.
The
Stearns said Paccar should have inspected the bolts before
installing them in trucks.
Paccar countered that the bolt's manufacturer and two suppliers
involved in providing the bolts to the Paccar plant should be held
accountable.
Stearns suffered a back injury that caused him to miss a year of
work. He was awarded $261,000. Mrs. Steams was awarded $75,000.
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