Laredo Jury Finds Sears, Roebuck & Co. Guilty Of Malice
Laredo, Webb County, Texas -- Sears, Roebuck & Co. was found negligent and guilty of malice by a jury in a tire service case. After 6 hours of deliberation, the panel awarded families from Laredo, Texas and Durango, Mexico, a Plaintiff's verdict.
"When a company holds itself out as an expert in the tire business, you should expect to get expert service when you pay dollars for that service," said Mikal Watts, the lead trial attorney in the two-week trial. "The policies and procedures of Sears were not adequate, and those that were in place were not followed." He added that "this jury sent a message that companies that hold themselves out as tire experts, and take money for those services, need to provide the promised expert care for the safety of its customers and others on the road."
Watts requested and received exemplary damages in order to force Sears, Roebuck & Co. to improve its inadequate, and often unfollowed, policies and procedures to protect the safety of innocent and unsuspecting persons on the road.
The jury found that when Jesus Bernardo Gutierrez Ibarra took his 1998 Ford F-350 Dually Truck in for a vehicle tire change on January 3, 2002, that Sears, Roebuck & Co. failed to find a serious and dangerous defect in one of the two tires the tire technician recommended leaving on the vehicle. Sixteen days later, the tire came apart, causing an accident in Durango, Mexico which killed four Mexican citizens. It also found that Sears, Roebuck & Co. acted with malice in implementing, maintaining and auditing its policies and procedures. Gregory Gowan, Watts' partner, said "these were good, hard working families that lost their loved ones because Sears failed to live up to its promises, and are proud that the jury did not allow these tragic deaths to be in vain."
"We knew going into the case one of our clients, the one driving, would have some responsibility for the incident itself," said Watts, "and we admitted that to the jury up front." "However," he added, "we also knew the terrible injuries sustained were caused by the failure of Sears to properly inspect the dually before it sent him back on the road with a defective tire."
Prior to the tragic and unfortunate events of January 19, 2002, Jesus Bernardo Gutierrez Ibarra was at a Sears, Roebuck & Co. store in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for the purpose of purchasing tires and obtaining the recommendation of Sears personnel regarding the condition of the tires on the subject F-350 Pick-up truck. Sears installed four new tires on the truck, but left two older tires on the truck. Sears employees, at the time of installation of the rear tires, inspected the tires on the Ford F-350 pick up truck and recommended that two of the Yokohama tires previously mounted on the Ford F-350 pick up truck remain on the truck. On January 19, 2002, one of the tires Sears left on the vehicle detreaded on the roadway, causing the vehicle to exit the roadway, roll and catch on fire. As a result of the tire detread, and subsequent rollover of the Ford F-350 truck, Jesus Bernardo Ibarra Gutierrez, Arturo Galindo-Ortiz Ruvalcaba, Bianca Oline Gongora De Isla and Marcela Alvarez Bacio died. Plaintiff Libia M. Alcantar Diaz, the sole survivor of the wreck, also suffered injuries as a result of the tire failure and wreck in question.
Watts also said, "Unfortunately, rollover accidents after a tire detread have become more and more common. This jury told Sears that if you know these incidents are going to happen, you know the problems of detreading tires, and you know how it puts peoples lives at risk, we expect you to provide the expert service you promised."
"Sears had a convenient excuse for every phase of the case. First they disputed that Mr. Gutierrez had ever been to the store. After our clients produced a receipt to the contrary, Sears denied that the failed tire had been on the vehicle when Mr. Gutierrez took the truck in for tire service only 16 days before the tire failed. Witness testimony defeated this defense. Sears then asked the jury to assume that Mr. Gutierrez changed the tires in the 16 days before the wreck. Finally, Sears tried to convince the jury that the tire failed only after the truck left the roadway as a result of Mr. Gutierrez going to fast," said Joseph Barrientos, who tried the case with Watts. "I think the jury was able to look at the evidence and see that Sears' defenses were unsubstantiated. Sears, Roebuck & Co. was hit with exemplary damages because they failed to follow their own inadequate procedures, because they asked the jury to make up evidence and because their own witnesses lacked credibility."
This is the second recent verdict against Sears for poor tire inspection services. In 2002, an Orange County Texas jury also found Sears negligent in causing the death of a Texas woman. This verdict was the third largest ever returned in Webb County, Texas. Yokohama settled the case against it days before trial began against Sears. Watts and his firm have been at the forefront of defective product lawsuits nationwide.
Plaintiffs were represented by:
Mikal C. Watts, G. Joseph Barrientos, and Gregory L. Gowan, Watts Law Firm, L.L.P.;
Reynaldo L. Diaz, Jr., Law Office of Reynaldo L. Diaz Jr., 1615 Broadway, San Antonio, Texas 78215; office: 210.224.1000; fax: 210.224.1030; and
Mario A. Castillo, Jr., The Law Office of Mario A. Castillo, Jr., 401 E. Hillside, Capital Centre, Laredo, Texas 78041; office: 956.791.6634
Defendant, Sears, was represented by:
Louis Lehr, Arnstein & Lehr, 515 N. Flagler Drive, 6th Floor, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401-4323; office: 561.833.9800; fax: 561.655.5551
Les Katona, Plunkett & Gibson, 70 N.E. Loop 410, Suite 1100, San Antonio, Texas 78216; office: 210.734.7092; fax: 210.734.0379