Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) is declaring legal victory after a jury found it not liable for a house fire in 2020. A jury unanimously sided with the automaker in March, a verdict Mazda says is now final, since the deadline for a plaintiff appeal to the verdict has now passed.
The case stems from a fire that destroyed the garage and home of Ardice and John Sweeney in Pennsylvania. Erie Insurance Exchange, which paid to rebuild the Sweeneys’ property following the fire, as subrogee of the Sweeneys, subsequently filed a product liability action against Mazda, seeking approximately $700,000 in damages. In its lawsuit, Erie claimed that a defect in the Sweeneys’ new-at-the-time 2019 Mazda CX-5 was the origin of the blaze.
According to Erie, while parked in the home’s garage, a defect in the CX-5 vehicle’s engine compartment battery wiring was the probable cause of their fire. Erie’s experts testified that all other potential causes had been ruled out.
Mazda asserted that: (1) the physical evidence and fire patterns conclusively ruled out the CX-5 as the point of origin; (2) several other plausible ignition sources—including the garage’s electrical circuitry, a refrigerator, and improperly discarded smoking materials—had not been sufficiently considered by Erie’s investigators; and (3) there were no defects in the CX-5’s wiring that could have caused the fire.
After a five-day trial and two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Mazda North American Operations, finding the automobile manufacturer not liable for the fire.
Read the Mazda press release here.
If you'd like to look up the lawsuit, here's how to find it: Erie Insurance Exchange a/s/o Ardice and John Sweeney v. Mazda North American Operations et al., Case No. 5316-CV-2020, in the Court of Common Pleas of Monroe County, Pennsylvania.
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