Defective Design: Nissan Restraint System Injures Couple
Karnes County, Texas: On or about September 16, 2008, as Joe Leal stopped to make a left turn in his 1995 Nissan pickup, Nancy Gonzales struck the rear end of the Nissan truck, causing it to come to rest in a ditch. Joe Leal and his passenger, Sara Leal, sustained severe injuries when the occupant compartment was compromised and the occupants’ seatback failed.
Wigington Rumley Dunn & Blair LLP filed a suit contending that at the time the pickup was designed, manufactured and sold by Nissan Motor Company, LTD and Nissan North American, Inc., its’ occupant restraint system, including the seat and seatback, was defective in design and unreasonably dangerous, which was a producing cause of the severe injuries to Joe and Sara Leal and of the physical pain, mental anguish and damages suffered by the plaintiffs.
Joe and Sara Leal each seek to recover damages for necessary medical expenses, loss of earning capacity, physical impairment, physical pain and mental anguish, disfigurement and a diminution of enjoyment of life. The Leal’s also seek to recover bystander damages for the mental anguish, emotional pain, suffering and torment which they each experienced as the result of contemporaneously seeing, hearing and perceiving the injuries and damages sustained by their spouse in the incident. This case settled for a confidential sum.