Nissan Ordered To Pay $24 Million To Family In Hollywood Crash

LOS ANGELES, CA — A jury Friday ordered Nissan North America to collectively pay more than $24 million to three people stemming from the deaths of a mother and two of her children in a Hollywood traffic crash in 2012.

The Los Angeles Superior Court panel concluded the deaths were caused by problems with the brakes on an Infiniti QX56, which struck a minivan and killed 27-year-old Saida Juana Mendez-Bernardino of Los Angeles and her daughters, Stephanie Cruz, 4, and Hilda Cruz, 6.

Mendez-Bernardino's oldest daughter, also a minor, was a plaintiff in the consolidated case along with Hilario Cruz, the father of the two girls who died. Solomon Methenge, who was driving the Infiniti, filed a cross-complaint against Nissan and also sought damages for his injuries.

The jury awarded $14 million to Cruz, $7.4 million to Mendez- Bernardino's surviving daughter and $3.5 million to Methenge.

Attorney Brett Turnbull, on behalf of Cruz and the minor daughter, praised the jury for their verdicts, saying the evidence supported their conclusions.

"They got it right," Turnbull said.

Nissan attorney Thomas Klein said he was disappointed with the jury's decision. He declined further comment, but said during trial that the evidence would show the Infiniti's brakes did not fail and that Methenge was to blame for the accident because he stepped on the accelerator rather than the brake pedal.

"This is not a case about brake failure, it's a case about failure to brake," Klein said.

Methenge's lawyer, Paul Kiesel, told jurors his client was a hard- working immigrant who had two jobs and was heading from his Lawndale home to North Hollywood at the time of the accident. Methenge's injuries included a shattered left hip and head trauma, Kiesel said.

The accident occurred when the minivan containing Mendez-Bernardino and her daughters was struck and pushed into a pole by the Infiniti. Methenge, then 74 and now 78, was driving north on Highland Avenue across Willoughby Avenue at about 7:20 a.m. Aug. 29, 2012, when he veered into oncoming traffic, police previously said.

Methenge was originally sued by the other plaintiffs as the lone defendant and he also was charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter. However, lawyers for the plaintiffs later dropped their case against him and the criminal case was dismissed by prosecutors after news reports surfaced of a nationwide class action lawsuit detailing a software defect in some Nissan models, including the Infiniti QX56.

The problems occur when an error code develops in the Infiniti optimum hydraulic braking system and the driver cannot stop despite pushing the pedal to the floor, according to the plaintiffs' attorneys. The problem is difficult to diagnose because the vehicles return to normal performance after the engine is turned off, the plaintiffs' attorneys said.

Nissan knew this brake design was having problems, but passed on multiple opportunities to recall the vehicles, Turnbull said.

Nissan told car dealers about the problem, but only informed consumers if they experienced such a brake failure, Turnbull said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said Methenge was traveling about 48 mph, but Klein said a reconstruction of the accident showed he was moving at about 72 mph. Klein said the previous incidents of Nissan braking problems differed sharply from that of Methenge's. He said that unlike the other cases, Methenge's vehicle actually sped up before the impact occurred.

Nissan manufactured the Infiniti and Continental Automotive Systems made its braking components, according to the plaintiffs' attorneys. Kiesel said that the plaintiffs settled with Continental Automotive before trial.

By BILL HETHERMAN, City News Service; Photo: Shutterstock