Cooper Tire & Rubber Company – Product Liability Litigation

On August 5, 2019, Justice Alison Tuitt of the New York Supreme Court, Bronx County, granted longtime Herrick client, Cooper Tire’s motion for summary judgment in a product liability action that has been pending for over 8 years.  This case emanates from a tragic and highly publicized accident involving multiple fatalities in 2010 where a church van experienced a rollover after a left rear tire failure.  Cooper Tire manufactured the failed tire and asserted from the outset that it was not defectively manufactured or designed, nor was it the proximate cause of the incident.  The Court, while keeping Ford Motor Company in the case on various theories of product liability, dismissed all claims and cross-claims against Cooper Tire, finding that the tire it manufactured had been misapplied, misused and abused, leaving it in a different condition than it had been at the time of its manufacture in 2003.