On February 26, 2008, a Florida jury awarded the family of a man killed in a Mitsubishi car accident $11 million in compensatory damages. The product liability lawsuit was filed against Mitsubishi following a 2004 car accident.

Parents of the victim argued that Mitsubishi was aware of problems with the passenger seat belt and seat recliner in the 2000 Montero Sport. The jury awarded $10 million for the parents? pain and suffering, and $1 million for funeral expenses and other losses.

In September 2004, the victim was riding as a passenger in the SUV, which is also marketed as the Mitsubishi Nativa, when the driver lost control of the car and it rolled over several times. Although he was wearing a seatbelt, the passenger was ejected through the rear window, and he died several hours later from head injuries. The driver of the car suffered only a minor injury.

The victim?s parents and their product liability lawyers said the seatbelt installed only on the front passenger side of the 2000 Montero Sport SUV had a design flaw. The seatbelt was made with about 10 inches of slack, called a ?breakaway loop,? that was sewn into the belt and was designed to break and extend the belt in the case of a car accident.

Mitsubishi said the seatbelt was designed to better protect passengers from head and chest injuries. However, the company put out a new version of the 2000 Montero Sport about halfway through the 2000 model year to correct flaws, but never notified the public of the defect.

Mitsubishi claimed the remodeled version did not correct flaws with the seatbelt or with the seat, but admitted changes were made because the SUV performed poorly in crash tests.

The family also claimed that the victim?s seat reclined during the car accident, which attributed to his ejection from the SUV.

Mitsubishi recently recovered from a scandal that was exposed in 2000, in which the company covered-up car defects that caused massive recalls. The company acknowledged that it had hidden defects in its vehicles for decades, repairing them without official recalls despite dozens of car accidents.

Sources: Susan Spencer-Wendel, ?Mitsubishi must pay $11 million to family of man ejected from SUV,? Palm Beach Post, February 26, 2008; Bud Newman, ?Plaintiff rests in Mitsubishi seatbelt case, seeks $26 million in crash death,? Law.com, February 26, 2008.