Decedent’s estate filed a product liability lawsuit in Chicago alleging that driver’s seat was defectively designed with inadequate strength making it unreasonably dangerous. The driver’s seat was co-designed by Ford and Mazda and was a “yielding seat” meaning that when force applied it yielded in the direction of the force. This “yielding seat” met federal safety standards. However, plaintiff’s expert testified that compliance with federal safety standards does not make a seat safe. Expert testimony revealed that a “rigid seat”transfers the energy forward in a rear end collision.
.we cannot allow the $25 million loss of society award to stand because it exceeds fair and reasonable compensation and shocks the judicial conscience.” The case was remanded to the trial court for a hearing to determine the appropriate amount of the remittitur. The court stated: “By way of guidance to the trial court, we would find it difficult to deem reasonable a loss of society award of more than seven figures and would certainly find unreasonable an award of any more than one-half of the loss of society settled upon by the jury.”Mikolajczyk v. Ford Motor Company and Mazda Motor Corporation, 2006 WL 3392219 (2006).