Attorneys Don Fountain, Ben Whitman, and Dan Walker of Clark, Fountain, Littky-Rubin & Whitman, together with co-counsel Drew Ashby, obtained a significant confidential settlement shortly before trial in an automotive product liability case involving both the vehicle manufacturer and seat manufacturer.

The case arose from a survivable rear-end collision in which the properly restrained driver suffered catastrophic injuries after the driver’s seat fractured across multiple structural components, allowing the seatback to twist and collapse more than 70 degrees. The failure caused the client to move rearward over the collapsing seat, resulting in a severe spinal fracture, immediate paraplegia, extensive medical complications, and ultimately death. Through a multidisciplinary investigation involving engineering, seat and vehicle design, accident reconstruction, metallurgy, failure analysis, radiology, and biomechanics, the legal team identified multiple failures within the seat assembly, including fractures in load-bearing brackets, damage near the reclining mechanism, and failure of the headrest post guides.

The case was resolved through confidential settlements with both manufacturers shortly before trial.