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The Jacksonville widower of Luma Kajy, the victim of a tragic accident on the Buckman Bridge earlier in 2010, filed suit against General Motors due to the Yukon, driven by Kajy, turning over and causing the death of Kajy after she swerved from the path of Sarah Pringle, found guilty of DUI Manslaughter for the accident.
The GM Yukon has a history of rollover issues and the design of the 2003 GM Yukon driving Kajy’s is one of the models known for such problems. The products liability lawsuit was filed within the statute of limitations timeframe of two years for a wrongful death claim. The suriving spouse may have actually had more time to file the lawsuit due to a 2010 change to the Wrongful Death statutory limits which indicates that there is no bar on such actions caused by the intentional acts of another.
The suit against GM should not impact the jail sentence currently being served by Pringle. Regardless of the make-up of the Yukon, had it not been for Pringle’s actions and choice to drive under the influence, Kajy would not have been involved in the accident that took her life.
A suit against a company like General Motors will most likely take time. Typically a case involving a products issue requires a period of discovery where both sides are investigating the allegations set forth in the lawsuit. In order to establish a products liability case, the widower will need to show that GM was negligent in their design of the Yukon and that such negligence caused the rollover in an accident like this one. In addition, whether certain testing would have shown GM of the potential dangers associated with such design.
The fact that the Yukon’s body has been changed since the 2003 model, which cannot be shown as evidence that the 2003 model was, in fact, faulty.