Murphy v. General Motors
This was a products liability case in an accident on a lonely road on a rainy night. Plaintiff was found lying unconscious next to his Buick on the road to his home in a rainstorm. There were no witnesses, and he did not remember what happened due to a serious head injury. His car was upside down and the right rear wheel and about 6 inches of the right rear axle were lying in a ditch about 75 yards away from the car. We claimed that the axle broke and caused the wreck. GM claimed that he had been drinking, wrecked his car and broke the axle. We were able to demonstrate that the fracture originated in a tiny crack created in the manufacturing process. The car needed to bounce enough to flex the spinning axle when the crack was aimed exactly away from the direction of flex for it to break. There was a bump at the end of a bridge he had just crossed which would cause the necessary flexing of the axle. Sooner or later, this was going to happen. Result: Verdict for the driver and his family for $1,200,000.