Word: corvairs
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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General Motors has won a significant decision in the case of the controversial Corvairs. Some 85 suits have been brought against G.M. by victims-and dependents of victims-injured in accidents involving Corvairs built in the 1960-63 model years. Almost all claim that the car's rear axle (since redesigned) gave the Corvair an inherent instability and a tendency to oversteer, resulting sometimes in fatal accidents. G.M. won the first suit last month by convincing a California jury that a fatal accident involving a 1960 Corvair was caused by driver inexperience; but the jury's decision...
They roared into action when a police radio squawked "QK-7554"-the license number of an oncoming Corvair. "It's a hit!" chortled one cop. "I've got the warrant!" shouted another. The cops flagged down the Corvair, flashed their warrant and arrested the driver-Gloria Placente, 34, a bewildered blonde housewife headed for the beach. Triumphantly, the cops explained their gimmick: a computer miles away had just squealed that Mrs. Placente had neglected to answer a summons after she ran a red light 16 months...
...fast-developing doctrine that a manufac turer may be held liable for consumer injuries without being proved guilty of negligence in the manufacturing proc ess (TIME, Aug. 6). Strict liability lurks behind hundreds of pending suits that claim that the rear axle of G.M.'s 1960-1963 Corvairs caused oversteering and sometimes fatal accidents. But last week G.M. won the first of those suits - and in California, where the doctrine of strict liability is well established. In San Jose, G.M. successfully de fended itself against Doreen Collins, 39, a divorcee seeking $400,000 in compensatory damages for a grisly...
With this principle well established, California has now become the legal arena where General Motors is fighting the first of scores of suits involving the 1,124,076 Corvairs it produced between 1960 and 1963. Nearly all the suits claim that in those years the Corvair's rear axle (since redesigned) tended to cause violent oversteering that sometimes forced the car to "fishtail" and roll over...
...eight weeks, California's key Corvair case has been on trial in San Jose. The plaintiff is Doreen Collins, a pleasant-faced divorcee who seeks $400,000 in compensatory damages for a grisly accident in 1962 when she was driving her five children and her new fiance on a camping trip in a 1960 Corvair. Suddenly swinging out of control, the car hit a truck headon, killing one child and the fiance. U.S. Racing Driver Paul O'Shea has taken the stand to back the Collins claim that the Corvair was unsafe. British Racing Driver Stirling Moss...