Tesla rejected a conciliation offer of $ 60 million in autopilot -wallet death case, resulting in a $ 243 million sentence against the company, according to new legal documents.
It is a rare example of Tesla sticking to her promise not to settle cases, it believes is unfair, and it could end up biting the company right in the pocket book.
To catch up on what is that, the $ 243 million Autopilot Wrongful Death Case ends early this month. It was the first actual verdict against the company in an autopilot -wallet death case – does not count previous settlements.
The case was centered around a crash in 2019 by a Model S in Florida, where the driver fell his phone, and while he picked it up, Model S drove through a stop sign at a T-interesting, crashed into a parked Chevy Tahoe, who then hit two pedestrians, killed one and seriously injured the other.
Tesla was also caught withholding data in the case, which is not a good look.
In the end, the driver for compensatory damage was found 67% responsible and Tesla was found 33% responsible. But Tesla was also beaten by $ 200 million in penalties. The plaintiffs reached a settlement with the driver separately.
Tesla plans to appeal the case and we are sure it will exhaust any option. It may not be possible in the company’s benefit that we will keep an eye on.
But today, new information came out of the fact that Tesla previously rejected a $ 60 million settlement in the case – which, if the verdict is holding, will have ended up costing the company an extra $ 183 million.
Tesla did not accept the settlement and instead opposed one with someone who included a lower amount, and also a non-disclosure agreement. The plaintiffs did not accept this mod offer.
Today’s news came as part of an archiving from the plaintiffs ‘attorneys who requested that Tesla pay the plaintiffs’ accrued legal fees since May 30, the day the settlement was proposed as they say the Florida Act gives them the right.
This means that denial of the settlement can also cost the applicant’s legal fees from continuing to fight the case and the cost of any subsequent legal appeals. Plus the setting of a legal precedent that could have been avoided through settlement.
It is a somewhat rare example of Tesla sticking to a promise that it did many years ago. Tesla CEO Elon Musk once said the company will never run an unfair case against it.
He said this while trying to recruit a “hardcore case case,” a phrase that Musk has used several times during Tesla’s history.
As mentioned above, however, this is a something rare Example of Tesla that stick to these words. Despite the fact that Musk is aware of this commitment, Tesla has settled a number of cases in the years ago.
The company decided the wrongful death cases for Walter Huang and Clyde Leach, a case of excessive compensation for Tesla’s board of directors, a British case of false self -driving demands, and a case of pricing Elektrek Originally broken) – to suggest that either Tesla found these cases “just” or that the obligation above might not be as sweeping as musk portraited it to be.
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The obligation above is an admirable goal that suggests a sincerity rare in business and the law. It’s just too bad that it’s not right and that musk just ran his mouth (or fingers) when he said it.
Furthermore, a company seeking directly in legal issues would not hide evidence that Tesla did in this case.
More realistic … Tesla’s settlements are not an admission of “justice” in the cases against it, but instead are just examples of standard legal maneuvering of a business.
Tesla has probably settled in previous cases to avoid a legal precedent that would make it possible to decide future cases against it using the framework of a previous case. This is a common step for businesses and is often the monetarily correct, especially if they see a reasonable chance of a judgment against them.
In this case, Tesla might not think there was a reasonable chance of a verdict against it, or maybe it depended on the hundreds of millions in bribes that its CEO gave to an open corrupt political candidate in hope to would make his legal problems disappear.
Incidentally, the date on which the settlement was proposed, May 30, was less than a week before the famous who fell between Musk and the corrupt candidate. Although Tesla would have had 30 days to accept the settlement, which it did not, even after the public breakdown. So maybe the theory of hoping for corruption is a little too conspiratorial here.
Declining the settlement in this case could Suggest that Tesla finds that this is an “unfair” case and that it wanted to continue to fight the case on moral reasons … except it offered its own silterttelement. So maybe not so high the mind after all.
Realistically, it is just the standard calculation of the probable costs of the result of the case, multiplied by the likelihood of Tesla seeing the case succeeding, as is the case with most companies. And it has nothing to do with Musk’s highly minded tweet, which the company has repeatedly turned out to not be looked at.
Either way, continuing with appeals is the expected step from here. Tesla has cash to continue to fight for this, so it will do, especially if it sees any chance of succeeding.
But if it continues to go bad for the company, it could not only cost the $ 183 million more than the settlement would have, but also put a potentially costly legal precedent for any future wrongful death cases. And the lawyer involved in this case, Brett Schreiber, says he’s ready for round two.
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