Perry v. Kia Motors America

Personal Injury, Product Liability, Design Defect

Orange County

Superior Court Judge Nancy E. Zeltzer

Defense Attorneys: Dykema Gossett Pllc, James P. Feeney, Dommond E. Lonnie, Clay A. Cossé

Plaintiffs Attorneys: Mlg Attorneys At Law, Jonathan S. Michaels, Thomas S. Van

James P. Feeney

Car manufacturers have a duty to ensure the vehicle's safety devices work properly because accidents happen. Dykema Gossett PLLC defeated a $104 million lawsuit by an aspiring pop singer, Kamiya Perry, by proving that, despite a tragedy, its client did exactly what was required.

The team led by Dykema PLLC attorneys James P. Feeney and Dommond E. Lonnie defended Kia Motors against the lawsuit involving a 2015 Kia Forte that rolled over after a collision.

Perry -- represented by Jonathan S. Michaels of MLG Attorneys at Law, Thomas S. Van of Knight Law Group LLP and Ryan D. Jones of Dack Law Group -- suffered a traumatic brain injury as a passenger in the car and will need constant care for life.

"Ms. Perry's brain injury was real and it had impacted her life and future plans," Feeney said. "The jurors were able to put aside their understandable feelings of sympathy and compassion for Ms. Perry and decide this case on the basis of the evidence."

"This case involved a great deal of conflicting medical and biomechanical evidence and expert testimony regarding the precise mechanism of Ms. Perry's brain injury," Feeney said. "Our biomechanics' expert explained how the injury occurred and gave the jury grounds to reject the plaintiff's theory of product defect and causation."

Perry's attorneys argued that the Kia Forte's seat belt system and passenger air bag failed to deploy.

The woman's head and body slammed into the interior of the vehicle, but there was no evidence to support the claim that her head hit the roof, which meant her seat belt worked properly, the defense experts showed.

Perry's attorneys argued that had the seat belt system worked properly, her injuries would have been less severe. Perry v. Kia Motors America, 30-2019-01081281 (Orange Sup. Ct., filed July 5, 2019).

Kia Motors argued that Perry's brain injury was caused by the sudden stopping and rotation of her brain inside her skull during the collision.

"We attacked the opposing experts through cross examination based on scientific and engineering principles," Feeney explained. "That takes a lot of preparation, research and good old fashioned hard work.

"Second we raised questions where we were on solid ground in the post recovery, rehabilitation part of the case where we thought that there were discrepancies," he added. "Third, we used sophisticated trial science data to reinforce our own, common sense ideas about the unique challenges a defendant corporation faced with selecting a jury and trying a serious, high exposure case in the midst of the pandemic."

Feeney said the plaintiff's post-trial motions have been denied.

Jonathan S. Michaels of MLG Attorneys at Law, said he has filed an appeal.

"In our view there were some pretty severe discovery abuses that Kia had engaged in and we believe that the court did not correctly apply the law as to how these abuses should have been dealt with," he explained.

- Federico Lo Guidice

Dommond E. Lonnie