In a one-sentence order, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Mark I. Bernstein disposed of more than 100 post-trial motions filed in the wake of a jury’s verdict against DaimlerChrysler Corp. awarding a class of approximately 80,000 Pennsylvanians a total of about $60 million. Bernstein upheld the verdict, denying all motions except the plaintiffs’ request for attorney’s fees.
The class action alleged that DaimlerChrysler, between 1988 and 1990, knowingly sold cars with airbags that could severely burn the hands and wrists of drivers — even though equally effective, safer airbags were available. The jury’s verdict, reached on Feb. 18, 1999, represents about $730 per class member, enough to buy a new airbag, said plaintiffs’ lawyer Martin J. D’Urso, of Kohn Swift & Graf.
