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Plaintiffs in Chrysler Air Bag Class Action Request Court to Expand the Class

13 March 1999

Plaintiffs in $59 Million Chrysler Air Bag Class Action Verdict Request Court to Expand the Class to Entire Nation and to Triple the Damage Award Under the Consumer Protection Law

    PHILADELPHIA, March 12 -- The Plaintiffs in Crawley v.
DaimlerChrysler Corp. have filed their post trial petition with the Court of
Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, in which they request the Court to expand
the case from a Pennsylvania class to include the entire nation.  In papers
filed by Joseph C. Kohn and Martin J. D'Urso of the firm of Kohn, Swift &
Graf, P.C., and Isaac H. Green, Jr., of the firm of Adrian Moody, P.C., the
Plaintiffs also requested the Court to triple the $59 million compensatory
damage award under the Pennsylvania Consumer Protection Law, and order
DaimlerChrysler to pay the Plaintiffs' attorneys' fees.
    On February 18, 1999, after a three week trial, the jury found that air
bags in Chrysler vehicles manufactured between 1988 and 1991 were defective
because they caused serious hand, wrist and arm burns when 500-600 degree
gases were vented from holes located where drivers most frequently hold their
hands.  The jury also found that Chrysler committed fraud and violated three
provisions of the Pennsylvania Consumer Protection Law by concealing the
dangerous defect in the air bags even after its own study had confirmed an
unacceptable burn risk.
    The verdict was the largest ever in an air bag case, and one of the
largest jury verdicts in a consumer class action in the country.
    The Plaintiffs had originally requested the Court to certify the case on
behalf of all vehicles in the United States.  In a ruling in 1994, the Court
limited the class to Pennsylvania drivers only.  "The jury found that
Chrysler's air bag was defective and that Chrysler lied to consumers about its
product.  There is no reason why the citizens of other states should not
receive the protection and benefits of the jury's findings.  Chrysler had the
opportunity to fully and fairly defend itself and it lost.  It would be an
unnecessary burden on the judicial system to have to relitigate this issue in
50 states," said Joseph C. Kohn, counsel for the Plaintiffs.
    Plaintiffs also have requested the Court to triple the damage award under
the Pennsylvania Consumer Protection Law.  "The jury found by clear and
convincing evidence that Chrysler committed fraud.  Tripling the award will
send a clear message to the DaimlerChrysler executives from Detroit to Berlin
that injuring and misleading consumers will not be tolerated," said Martin J.
D'Urso, co-counsel for Plaintiffs.  The Plaintiffs cited a recent appellate
decision in which the Pennsylvania Superior Court instructed that, when fraud
had been found, a failure to award treble damages would do "violence to the
intent and purpose" of the Pennsylvania Consumer Protection Law.  The
Plaintiffs also noted that DaimlerChrysler has recently paid one of its
Co-Chairmen, Robert Eaton, salary and stock options for 1998 worth almost
$70 million.  "Chrysler's claims that the jury award was excessive ring
terribly hollow in light of such an astronomical payment.  If there is a
compensation system that has run amuck, it's one that would pay one chief
executive more than 82,000 defrauded consumers.  Yet, absent trebling, that's
precisely what would happen here, " said Kohn.
    Under Pennsylvania procedure, the trial court will rule on the post trial
motions of the parties before any appeals can be taken.