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Alabama Jury Finds Mercedes-Benz Airbag to Be Not Defective

BIRMINGHAM, AL, December 14, 2007 - Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC and Daimler AG recently obtained a defense verdict in a product liability case in the Circuit Court of Winston County, Alabama before Honorable John Hodges Bentley.

This wrongful death action arose out of a two car head-on collision and involved allegations of improper and late deployment of the driver's front airbag in a 1999 Mercedes-Benz SLK 230, allegedly causing fatal injuries to the driver. During trial, the Defendants demonstrated that the airbag was unable to fully deploy during the collision because the driver -- who was not wearing the seat belt -- blocked the airbag, having been significantly out of position at the time of impact. Defendants further showed that the airbag deployed in a timely fashion.

On December 14, 2007, after only 3 1/2 hours of deliberations, the jury returned a unanimous verdict for the Defendants, finding that the SRS system, including the airbag, in the SLK 230 was not defective.

Defendants Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC were represented by Alan Thomas, Lanier Brown, and John Isaac Southerland of Huie Fernambucq & Stewart LLP in Birmingham, Alabama, and Justs Karlsons, Matthew Kemner and Karin Geissl of Carroll, Burdick & McDonough LLP in San Francisco, California, and Jerry Jackson of Jackson, Mays & McNutt, LLC of Haleyville, Alabama. Plaintiffs were represented by Nat Bryan of Marsh, Rickard & Bryan, P.C. in Birmingham, Alabama, and Jonathan Lowe of Lowe, Mobley & Lowe in Haleyville, Alabama.