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Evenflo ordered to pay $10.4 million
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HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A jury has ordered child safety seat maker Evenflo Co. to pay $10.4 million to the parents of a 4-month-old boy who died of head injuries in a car crash.
The district court jury awarded $3.7 million in punitive damages to Chad and Jessica Malcolm on Thursday, a day after deciding that the Livingston couple should receive $6.7 million in compensatory damages for the death of their son, Tyler.
The company said it would appeal the latest verdict to the state Supreme Court.
"While Evenflo certainly agrees that it was a tragedy for the Malcolm family that their child died, we feel it was the result of an extraordinary car accident," Evenflo attorney Earl Gunn said. "We do not believe that the product is defective."
Tyler was killed in July 2000. He struck his head on his car seat's hard plastic shell when the seat was ejected from a vehicle in a rollover crash, said Evan Douthit, a lawyer for the Malcolms.
Gunn argued during the trial in Livingston, about 100 miles southeast of Helena, that Tyler suffered the head injury when the door next to him opened and his head struck the ground during the rollover.
Evenflo Chief Executive Officer Rob Matteucci said in a statement that he disagreed with the verdict.
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