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South Carolina Personal Injury Attorneys

A Relentless Pursuit of Justice



Prior to trial, Joye Law Firm, L.L.P., successfully reached on behalf
of its client, John Whitehead, as the administrator of the estate of
Frances Whitehead, his deceased wife, a large settlement of a
case against General Motors Corporation and an at-fault driver.
(Note: To protect their identity, our client’s names have been
changed for this article.) In December of 2002, Mrs. Whitehead
purchased a 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer thinking it was safe based
on advertising in General Motors Corporation's brochures as to the
vehicle's over-all strength and durability and the local dealer sales
representative's representations that the vehicle had over-head
roof protection, which the Whiteheads understood to mean that it
had a well-supported roof.

In January of 2003, Mrs. Whitehead was returning to the dealership
to retrieve an extra key. Her elderly mother was seated in the
right front passenger seat and her grandson was seated in the
right rear passenger seat. Mrs. Whitehead was maintaining a proper
lookout and all passengers were properly belted. As Mrs.
Whitehead continued down the highway, another vehicle pulled
out from an intersection and hit Mrs. Whitehead's vehicle in the
right rear quarter panel.

Mrs. Whitehead lost control of the vehicle and it went down into the
median. As the 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer was coming up out of
the median, it began to roll. The vehicle rolled three times across
the opposite side of Mrs. Whitehead's original lane of travel before
finally coming to rest. The roof on Mrs. Whitehead's side of the
vehicle massively crushed down more than 18 inches to the level
of being below the headrest of the vehicle. Mrs. Whitehead, who
was only four feet and nine inches tall, received fatal head injuries
as a result of the extensive roof crush on the driver's side of the
vehicle. The passengers on the right side of the 2002 Chevrolet
TrailBlazer, where there was no roof crush, walked away from the
accident with minimal injuries.

Mr. Whitehead's life was shattered, as were those of Mrs.
Whitehead's three daughters and grandchildren. Instead of celebrating
birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and other family occasions,
the Whitehead family had to adjust to life without Mrs.
Whitehead, who served as the indispensable center of the family.
In addition, Mr. and Mrs. Whitehead had legal custody of two of
their grandchildren for whom Mrs. Whitehead cared.
Aside from the tremendous loss of his life-long companion, Mr.
Whitehead also suffered economic loss as a result of Mrs.
Whitehead's death. Mrs. Whitehead assisted Mr. Whitehead with
certain aspects of his daily business operations and also operated
a daycare out of their home.

A few months after the accident, Mr. Whitehead, who resides in
North Carolina, turned to Joye Law Firm for assistance. Joye Law
Firm shortly thereafter filed an action in North Carolina on behalf of
the Whiteheads against General Motors Corporation and the atfault
driver alleging that General Motors Corporation had defectively
designed the roof of the 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer by failing
to sufficiently reinforce its roof so as to afford passengers like Mrs.
Whitehead with any reasonable degree of protection. The lawsuit
alleged that General Motors Corporation was aware of the dangers
associated with roof crush and knowingly neglected to afford its
consumers with protection from a known danger. While vehicle
roll-overs do not account for a large number of accidents, they do
account for a very large percentage of over-all fatalities.

Joye Law Firm vigorously pursued this case, retaining numerous
nationally known experts from across the country to assist in the
preparation of this case for trial. These experts included an accident
reconstructionist who visited the accident scene in North
Carolina in order to recreate the accident sequence, a biomechanic
to discern how the fatal injury occurred, an automotive design
engineer who examined the 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer for defects
and then developed an alternative design to the existing roof which
would have afforded Mrs. Whitehead with appropriate protection,
and an economist to establish the economic loss to Mr. Whitehead
due to Mrs. Whitehead's death.

Joye Law Firm also retained a former General Motors
Corporation engineer who was prepared to testify that General
Motors Corporation was aware that the roofs of its vehicles were
weak when subjected to roll-overs. This expert would have testified
at trial that rather than stringently testing its vehicles for their
performance in reasonably foreseeable roll-over events, General
Motors Corporation was subjecting its vehicles' roofs to only minimal
testing that has no correlation to injuries as a result of roof
crush.

Joye Law Firm relentlessly pursued this case in North Carolina on
behalf of the Whiteheads. There were numerous heated court battles
in North Carolina over General Motors Corporation's failure to
produce documents that were necessary for the preparation of the
case for trial. Depositions also took place in Arizona, California,
Indiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Due to
Joye Law Firm's aggressive prosecution of this case to exhaustively
prepare for trial, the case was able to be effectively resolved
through mediation before the two-week trial of the case was
scheduled to begin.

Mark C. Joye, who handled the case with the assistance of Amy
B. Rothschild, stated, "For years, the danger of roof crush associated
with roll-overs has been known to the automobile industry.
Despite notice of this obvious hazard, especially as relates to sport
utility vehicles, the automobile industry continues to ignore it even
though roof strength could be improved at minimal cost. We are
glad that we were able to assist Mr. Whitehead in achieving an
adequate settlement by holding General Motors Corporation
accountable for its actions."

In addition to previous automotive product liability cases that
have been litigated in California, Michigan, North Carolina, and
Virginia, Joye Law Firm, and its product liability team comprised of
three attorneys and a support staff, also have ongoing product liability
cases in Florida and of course, South Carolina. Joye Law
Firm's present caseload includes a myriad of vehicle manufacturers
and defects. Currently, Joye Law Firm is working on cases
involving DaimlerChrysler Dodge Dakotas, Dodge Durangos,
Freightliner tractor trucks, Plymouth minivans, Ford Motor
Company Explorers and Mercury Marquises; and GMC Yukons.
While these cases all involve crashworthiness, other specific
defects at issue include fuel lines, handling and stability control,
roll-over and roof crush, occupant restraint systems, door locking
and latch systems, and window glazing.