Christine D. Spagnoli

Defective autos are a focus of Spagnoli's practice. In a current case with national implications, she filed a product liability suit against FCA US LLC on behalf of two men killed in the fiery explosion of a gas tank in a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Rosalio Munoz-Reyes and Juventino Diaz-Hernandez were driving home from work in January 2015 when their vehicle broke down and came to a stop in traffic lanes on State Route 60 in Ontario.

Another car rear-ended the Jeep and it immediately burst into flames, trapping both men and burning them to death. Spagnoli learned that a growing number of fatalities involve Jeeps suspected of having defective fuel systems that can lead to fires when damaged, she said. "The Center for Auto Safety is actively collecting data on this," she said. "Chrysler was forced to recall some models. It retrofitted some with a trailer hitch to try to solve the rear-ender problem. But there is a left-out group of Jeeps that statistical analysis does not justify leaving out." Estate of Munoz-Reyes v. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles LLC, CIVDS1602654 (San Bernardino Super. Ct., filed Feb. 24, 2016)

The problem, she said, is a fundamental design flaw. "They put a plastic gas tank behind the rear axle. It's vulnerable to a rear crash and a bumper underride. The problem is evolving." She cited National Transportation Safety Board figures showing that since June 2013 there have been 47 deaths in fatal fire crashes in Jeeps.

Spagnoli was on the trial team in the landmark Anderson v. General Motors Inc., a 1999 defective fuel system case that resulted in a $4.9 billion jury verdict, said to be the largest personal injury judgment in history. The Jeep situation sounds like the problem with old Ford Pintos, another car with its tank behind the axle. "It's very much like the Pinto," Spagnoli said. "I don't know why they don't learn their lesson, but they insist on putting profits over safety. Plastic is easier to mold than metal. That's a packaging issue, and that is a real pattern in this industry."

As a past president of the Consumer Attorneys of California, Spagnoli fought off Fiat's effort to write into its 2009 purchase agreement with the bankrupt Chrysler language that would have absolved it of liability for Chrysler's pre-bankruptcy vehicles. "Fiat wanted to walk away from 100 million cars," she said. "We backed them down, and because we did, my clients now have a remedy."

- John Roemer