Members of the Supreme Court of Georgia imagined a series of calamities as they explored where Georgia law holds car owners responsible for accidents caused by thieves who stole  their vehicles.

Beyond the hypothetical cases were $54 million in verdicts awarded by Gwinnett County State Court juries to two women who sued Avis Rent A Car System and others. The plaintiffs sought compensation for severe injuries they suffered when an Avis employee stole a vehicle from a downtown Atlanta branch and crashed it into a wall where the women were sitting, resulting in the loss of one woman’s leg and a shattered hip and intestine damage for the other.