USU Crash Lawsuit Heard in 10th U.S. Circuit Court

Denver, COSeveral Utah State University students were either killed or injured in a 2005 van crash in which their families are claiming was due to defective tires. The case was taken to federal appeals court on Tuesday March 18, 2008 in hopes to gain access to the internal files belonging to the tire manufacturer.

The families of all but one of the students who died in the crash and an instructor who was also with the students and was killed, has sued both DaimlerChrysler, the van's manufacturer, and Cooper. In the lawsuit against Cooper, the families allege that the tread became separated from the tire, resulting in the wreck that killed or injured the occupants.

It was ruled in January by a Utah magistrate judge that the plaintiffs could review various documents belonging to Cooper Rubber & Tire. However, the case has now landed in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals based out of Denver, after Cooper Rubber & Tire claimed that the discovery order was not correct because the company would have to reveal information about tires that are not involved in the lawsuit and make unnecessary proprietary information available.

The attorney for Cooper, Malcolm Wheeler, told the judges that such an open-ended review of the company's documents means that there would be a total of 89 years worth of documents that translates into possibly millions of documents to be reviewed.

However, it was countered by the families of the victims that they needed to have access to the documents to prove that Cooper had knowledge of or should have had had knowledge that there were flaws in the design of the tire used on the van and other models that are manufactured by the company.

Brad Bearnson, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, alleged that Cooper was trying to cause confusion by implying that the plaintiffs want to view all files that belong to the company. He says that the scope is much narrower, meaning that the plaintiffs only need access to documents dating back to the 1980s.

Judge Michael McConnell said that it looks like in the record that the plaintiffs are requesting documents for all of Cooper's tires. However, Judge Tena Campbell upheld the ruling by the magistrate to move ahead with the discovery order and she will be hearing the case that will begin in July. The three panel appeals court panel received the case because Cooper had appealed the January discovery order.

Typically judges side with Cooper when requests for their documents are made, but in this case the discovery order has been upheld and the plaintiffs will be able to gain access. However, Cooper has not admitted any wrongdoing; therefore they are standing by their product's quality and safety.

As for the lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler, an out-of-court settlement was reached between the plaintiffs and the automaker in December in which the amount of the settlement is awaiting judge approval; therefore it has not been disclosed.

By Ginger Gillenwater