[thstone]

This lawsuit is based on the following precedent in which a Porsche Carrera GT crashed and killed both the driver and the passenger. The passgener's family sued everyone and ultimately won $4.5M.

Sound familiar?

Here is an excerpt of the case;

The most relevant case to the Paul Walker situation began on June 5, 2005, when both driver Ben Keaton and passenger Corey Rudl were killed in a crash at Auto Club Speedway in California while lapping during a Ferrari Club track day. A Ferrari pulled onto the track, and Keaton made an evasive maneuver, ending up hitting a concrete barrier at about 100 mph.

There were multiple defendants -- the track, the club, the Ferrari driver, and even the estate of Keaton, because Keaton “failed to inform Rudl that he had been having handling problems with the Porsche, and that he had a recent incident where he lost control of the car.”

Porsche was, of course, named in the suit. The lawyer for the passenger's family claimed, “The expensive sports car was not equipped with Electronic Stability Control, a life-saving safety feature which would have prevented Mr. Rudl's death.”

The family of already-millionaire Rudl was awarded $4.5M two years after the crash. Porsche was on the hook for 8 percent of the award ($360,000) or $80,000 less than the Porsche Carrera GT cost new. The driver's (Keaton) family was responsible for 49 percent and the track and organizers were responsible for most (41 percent)of the settlement.

And before this;

In 1983, there was another similar lawsuit where Porsche was sued directly when a husband and father who was a passenger in a Turbo 930 was killed when the driver lost control on a city street and went into oncoming traffic. The jury awarded $2.5 million, which was upheld on appeal. Following this verdict, Porsche started offering driver's training to purchasers of its high-performance, turbocharged vehicles.

I think that the difference in both of these cases is that the plaintiff was a passenger and not the driver. As a passenger who did nothing wrong, juries have proven to be sympathetic to their claims. Thus, the Walker family is probably on fairly solid ground in pursuing this lawsuit.

Don't get me wrong, I am simply summarizing the facts around the case for everyone to consider all of the angles. Personally, I think lawsuits like this are nothing more than shakedowns.