$4,304,534 Million Jury Trial Verdict – Police Motorcycle Defect
A California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer on duty the night before Thanksgiving was severely burned in a low impact collision with another motorcycle. The other rider was traveling on the wrong side of a two lane rural road at night without lights. We proved to a Stockton, California jury that the officer’s severely burned face and hands resulted from a defect in the CHP motorcycle. The jury found the BMW manufacturer eighty percent responsible for the officer’s burn injuries under theories of product liability and failure to provide the CHP with the maximum amount of safety specified in the sale of the Motorcycle. This was the first ever verdict against the motorcycle manufacturer based on the claimed defect. There was no offer to settle by BMW before the trial.