Effort to open Goodyear blowout case rejected

Goodyear can keep its secrets in a case about how the deaths of three people are linked to its defective tires, Clark County District Judge Sally Loehrer ruled Tuesday.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys unsuccessfully sought to open to the public sealed testimony from their case against Goodyear, which involves a 2004 rental van accident that began with a Goodyear tire blowout.

Attorney Matthew Callister, who represents one of the families in the lawsuit, asked Loehrer to unseal the transcripts of five individuals’ testimony.

The trial took place earlier this year, and in February, a jury awarded more than $30 million to the affected families in the case, a decision that Goodyear is appealing in Nevada’s Supreme Court.

“People have a right to know what occurred in this courtroom,” Callister said.

If the record is kept sealed, it would limit the sources of information available to other attorneys, the media and consumer interest groups, Callister argued. The testimony sealed in this case was provided by four Goodyear employees and a former attorney for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Daniel Polsenberg, the attorney representing Goodyear, accused Callister of trying to ride the wave of recent publicity surrounding super-sealing, which cuts off public access to civil lawsuit records. A series of Review-Journal articles found that between 2000 and 2006 Clark County District Court judges sealed at least 115 lawsuits.

Unlike those cases, the sealing of the testimony in this case was OK’d months ago by plaintiffs’ attorneys and was limited to testimony that pertains to trade secrets, which are entitled to protection under Nevada law, Polsenberg said. All other aspects of the court record of the case are still open to the public.

“People know we lost at trial,” Polsenberg said. “They know how much we lost at trial for.”

Loehrer disagreed that all of the sealed testimony in question included specific trade secret information. She also disagreed with Callister’s argument that the sealing limited attorney access to vital information on Goodyear defects. The case generated more than 14 files of court data, each five inches thick, so other attorneys considering a case against Goodyear have multiple avenues to pursue, Loehrer said.

“The motion is denied,” Loehrer told Callister. “I invite you to address this issue with the Supreme Court.”

Callister said he plans to consult with other plaintiffs’ attorneys before deciding whether to appeal Loehrer’s decision.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, tire failure of the Goodyear Load Range E series tires manufactured between 1991 and 1999 resulted in at least 18 deaths and 158 injuries. Many of those incidents took place after the company had been notified of possible problems with its product.

The Las Vegas lawsuit was the first Goodyear case involving the Load Range E series tire to go to trial, Callister said.

Eleven people had tried to travel from the valley to a boxing tournament in Missouri in a rented Ford van. The passengers included families on their way to support their children, who were representing the Las Vegas Elite boxing gym in the tournament.

The blowout occurred on Interstate 70 in Grand County, Utah. Driver Ernesto Torres lost control of the 15-passenger vehicle, which crossed the median and rolled several times.

Frank Enriquez, who was traveling with his two sons, died at the scene. Ervetina Trujillo Tapia also died at the scene. Twelve-year-old Andres Torres, the son of Ernesto and Leonor Torres, died of his injuries a week after the accident.

Joseph Enriquez, whose father died, suffered traumatic brain injuries. About $14.5 million of the actual damages award is earmarked for his medical care. Many of the other passengers also suffered serious injuries.

This isn’t the first case in which Goodyear has sought to seal court records in tire failure litigation. Rosemary Shahan of the California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety said her group challenged Goodyear’s right to seal records involving a similar tire failure case in New Jersey. In 2002, Shahan’s group, along with the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, won a limited decision from the Superior Court of New Jersey. The court ordered the partial or full release of 14 Goodyear documents but maintained the seal on 17 other documents.

Shahan speaks of that decision today as a loss. In any case that involves issues of product safety, Shahan said, full disclosure should be the rule. People should be placed before trade secrets, she said.

“Our position is that there should never be secrecy when lives are at stake,” Shahan said. “It drives me crazy to hear from families who’ve experienced tragedies that are so preventable.”