Soulliere v. Suzuki Motors of America Inc

DOLLAR AMOUNT: $161.05 million

CASE NAME: Soulliere v. Suzuki Motors of America Inc.

TYPE OF CASE: Product liability, design defects

COURT: Orange County Superior Court

JUDGE(S): Judge Glenn R. Salter

PLAINTIFF LAWYERS: The Trial Lab Corporation, T. Gabe Houston; The Simon Law Group, Robbie G. Munoz, Travis E. Davis:

DEFENSE LAWYERS: Frost, Brown & Todd LLP, Randall S. Riggs, Jeffrey Mortier; Butler Snow LLP, Kathleen I. Carrington I. Carrington; Bowman and Brooke LLP, Jordan S. Tabak:

The first time Gabe Houston took Joey Soulliere's motorcycle accident case against Suzuki to trial in 2018, the jury awarded his client nearly $7.5 million. But in 2020, the Court of Appeal reversed, holding that Houston should not have put in evidence about a recall of the motorcycle involved in the accident without laying a foundation first.

When he took the case to trial again last year, he followed the appellate court's blueprint carefully, and in April, the second jury gave his client $161 million, including $150 million in punitive damages. Soulliere v. Suzuki Motors of America Inc., 30-2015-00790644 (O.C. Super. Ct., filed June 1, 2015).

"The appellate court helped me," he said. "And I don't think Suzuki is saying, thank God, we got a new trial out of that one."

For the first three weeks of the six-week trial, he and his co-counsel couldn't mention the recall at all. Instead, he talked about why the front brake on his young client's new motorcycle failed when an SUV pulled out in front of him. Rather than crash into it at 25 miles per hour, Soulliere laid the bike down, "obliterating his lower right leg, his left ankle and his kneecap," as well as injuring his back and shoulder. He has since had several surgeries, has a limp and may need both knees replaced, Houston said.

ROBBIE G. MUNOZ

Houston began the recent trial by tying the brake problem to corrosion to hydrogen gas developing inside the front master brake cylinder and causing corrosion. Most often, the corrosion caused the brake to feel spongy. But sometimes the brake could fail entirely when applied hard or it could lock up suddenly, he said.

Houston said Suzuki knew about the corrosion problem 10 years before Soulliere purchased his motorcycle. He had a metallurgist explain galvanic corrosion to the jury, and he played video depositions of four people from around the country who'd had similar brake problems.

Finally, it was "time to pull the rabbit out of the hat," he said. Houston showed the jury that Suzuki had issued a voluntary recall of motorcycles with the problematic brake about four months after Soulliere bought his bike.

"When the jury heard about the recall for the first time three weeks in, they already knew that it was a defective part," he said.

During its case, Suzuki "literally hid behind the Pacific Ocean" and did not bring in any company representatives from Japan, Houston said. It also did not put on any damages witnesses.

In a minute order after the trial, the judge wrote that the company's conduct was "reprehensible" and that its defenses were "not credible," according to Houston. "If Suzuki wanted to create the impression that it was a behemoth, international corporation with no empathy for the public or purchasers of its products, it could not have chosen a better approach."

In an email, defense attorney Randall Riggs referred to the company's earlier contentions that Soulliere's motorcycle was not defective and that the accident was the SUV driver's fault. He noted that the judge had reduced the "excessive" punitives award by 80% from $150 million to $30 million. The remittitur was accepted.

TRAVIS E. DAVIS

Suzuki has appealed. But Houston's co-counsel Travis Davis said he thinks the lowered the punitives protects the verdict "because the judge removed any sort of argument that there was jury passion behind this verdict."

-- Don DeBenedictis