$8 million default judgment for car manufacturer's discovery violations

By A. Janay Ferguson

A car manufacturer’s discovery abuses justified an $8 million default judgment against it, the Washington Supreme Court recently held.

In Magana v. Hyundai Motor America, No. 80922-4 (Nov. 25, 2009), Jesse Magana was a passenger in a 1996 Hyundai Accent. An oncoming truck appeared to be in their lane. The Hyundai driver swerved to avoid it, veered off the road, hit several trees, and spun violently. Magana was thrown from the car and was rendered a paraplegic.

Magana sued Hyundai and both drivers. He alleged that a design defect in the Hyundai allowed the seat to collapse. During discovery, Magana requested many documents from Hyundai concerning other complaints or incidents involving the failure of seat backs. Hyundai objected, refused to answer directly, and reworded the requests so as to limit their scope. At trial, the jury awarded Magana $8 million.

Hyundai appealed. The Court of Appeals reversed and ordered a new trial based on inadequate jury instructions. Because the first jury had been properly instructed as to damages, the Court of Appeals left the amount of the jury’s $8 million intact and ordered that the new trial be limited to whether Hyundai was liable.

On remand, the trial court ordered Hyundai to produce a wide range of documents concerning consumer complaints and lawsuits over failure of seat backs like the one in Magana’s accident. Hyundai then produced a large number of documents that it had never produced before, more than five years after the lawsuit had begun.