Giannini v. Ford Motor Company
Plaintiff was driving her 1996 Jaguar XJ6 in a largely unoccupied parking lot when the vehicle suddenly accelerated from a stop and crashed into a jersey barrier and then a light post. Plaintiff did not claim that Ford was responsible for causing the accident. Rather, she alleged that Ford manufactured her car with a defective seat belt and that the defect caused her to sustain injuries over and above the injuries that would have normally resulted from the accident if the seatbelt had not been defective. Ford denied that the seat belt was defective and alleged that plaintiff was not wearing her seat belt at the time of the accident or in the alternative that plaintiff would have sustained her injuries even if she had been wearing a fully-functional seatbelt.
