ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) – Ford Motor Company will not yet be able to claim a plaintiff alleging injuries from a defective restraint system wasn’t wearing hers.
The Georgia Supreme Court on June 22 found that Georgia’s “seatbelt statute” prevents Ford from mounting one of three possible defenses. It made the decision in response to certified questions from a federal judge handling Casey Domingue’s case against Ford.
The case says Casey’s wife Kristen hit her head on the windshield during an accident when a dashboard airbag didn’t deploy. Georgia’s seatbelt statute restricts the use of evidence that a plaintiff wasn’t wearing his or her seat belt, though it requires occupants in the front seat to be wearing it.
Not wearing a seatbelt will not be considered evidence of negligence or causation, the law says. The June 22 ruling says Ford can present evidence of the existence of seatbelts in the vehicle and their compliance with federal safety standards.
But the seatbelt statute does preclude Ford from pointing out Kristen wasn’t wearing one, the court ruled, given the limited record in her case.
“To be sure, some of us have serious concerns about the constitutionality of a statute that strips from a defendant the ability to present evidence that could be critical to its ability to present a defense of a product it designs and manufactures—including but not limited to being prevented from making arguments related to proximate cause and risk-utility factors—which may occur if a defendant-manufacturer is precluded from raising in a product-liability case about a motor vehicle all (or almost all) evidence related to a vehicle occupant’s failure to wear a seatbelt,” the ruling says.
“But… we believe the constitutional questions are not properly presented to this Court for resolution at this time.”
The federal court could still determine the evidence Ford seeks to show is inadmissible “for any number of reasons” not related to the seatbelt statute, which makes the Ohio Supreme Court’s consideration of its constitutionality premature, the Supreme Court said.
The plaintiffs say allowing Ford to show its vehicle had safe seatbelts available will be a back door that allows it to argue Kristen wasn’t wearing hers.