Multimillion-Dollar Settlement for Passenger Car Roof Crush, Causing Quadriplegia

Attorneys Alan M. Feldman, Daniel J. Mann, and Edward S. Goldis represented a young man who was a rear seat-belted occupant of a passenger car. While speeding and attempting to negotiate a curve in the roadway, the driver lost control of the vehicle, crossed the center line of the roadway and forcefully struck an oncoming SUV. As a result of the collision, the car left the roadway, climbed an adjacent embankment and rolled over several times before coming to rest on its wheels after re-entering the road. The plaintiff was rendered quadriplegic.

Feldman, Mann, and Goldis pursued a negligence claim against vehicle’s driver and a product liability claim against the manufacturer, contending that the vehicle’s roof was defective in design, causing it to collapse over the plaintiff’s head immediately upon impact with the SUV. The vehicle manufacturer mounted a vigorous defense, asserting that the car’s roof was extremely strong, exceeding the federal roof strength requirements by a large margin. The manufacturer argued that the plaintiff’s injuries were caused by powerful accident forces from a high-speed crash that was more severe than 99 percent of all auto accidents occurring in the United States. The defendant further claimed that the roof collapse did not occur at the time of the impact, but during the rollovers that followed and that the roof deformation had nothing to do with the causation of the plaintiff’s injuries.

Following a series of mediations conducted by A. Roy DeCaro, Esq., the case resulted in a confidential multimillion dollar settlement with the vehicle manufacturer. It is projected that this settlement will assure that the plaintiff will be taken care of for the rest of his life.