The jury found defendants Honda of America Manufacturing Co. Inc. and Honda R & D Co. Ltd. 75 percent responsible for the death of Karen Norman — even though after her death, Norman’s blood-alcohol level measured at nearly twice the Texas legal limit.
The accident happened in the early morning of Dec. 2, 1992, shortly after Norman, a nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit at the University of Texas Medical Branch Hospital and a former champion ice skater in Canada, had moved to Galveston. She and a friend were visiting a Galveston building — which, as local legend had it, was haunted by a former owner — said plaintiffs’ counsel Alton C. Todd, of Alvin, Texas. According to the legend, he said, “an image of a face would appear on the side of the building.”
