WILKES-BARRE
- The Powell Law Group has won a settlement rumored at over
$10 million from General Motors Corp. for the families o f
two Freeland men killed in a fiery 1999 collision with a drunk
driver on Airport Road in Hazle Township.
Proceeds
of the "confidential" settlement will benefit the estates
of Michael P. Arcure and Orval J. Murphy. They died in a 1985
Chevrolet Blazer along with the driver, Barry Mulhall, when
the vehicle was struck head-on by a pickup truck operated
by Harry Biddings III of Berwick.
Biddings,
now 27, pleaded guilty to three counts of homicide by vehicle
while intoxicated and was sentenced to 11 to 22 years in prison.
He admitted to visiting five bars, consuming 14 alcoholic
drinks and ingesting drugs within seven hours of the crash.
Settlement
negotiations began immediately following a hearing Tuesday
before Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski, who imposed
sanctions against GM for discovery violations related to trial
of a civil lawsuit.
Olszewski
ordered GM to pay expenses of $20,000 to Powell plus $500
for preparation of a motion for sanctions.
The
judge also fined GM $100 a day from Aug. 5 to Oct. 4 for missing
a court-imposed deadline to turn over engineering change reports
related to design of the fuel system of the Blazer.
Attorney
Bob Powell said he agreed after the hearing to give GM lawyers
48 hours to obtain corporate approval of the settlement "or
we would pull any offer off the table."
Powell
said the lawyers called at 4 p.m. Thursday and stated "GM
was prepared to meet all of our demands. They insisted on
two more caveats. One was confidentiality."
Powell
said he called his clients around 6 p.m. and obtained their
approval.
He
said the case was "tough for the parents living with this
tragic loss. They were unequivocal in their collective belief
that there was something wrong here. For them, this was never
about dollars and cents. It was about finding out what happened.
They were firm and solid throughout the process."
Powell
said, "This was a very difficult case that took hundreds
of work hours. We reviewed in excess of 70 banker's boxes
of documents. It was a gargantuan effort by everyone at my
firm and the experts we retained."
Powell's
firm will receive several million dollars from the undisclosed
settlement figure for representing the Arcure and Murphy families.
The firm will also be reimbursed for expenses in prosecuting
the lawsuit.
"Without
the final numbers for preparing for trial, we incurred six
figures of expenses," Powell said.
Additionally,
Powell said, "We've now been contacted by attorneys throughout
the country to assist in other cases against GM related to
fuel-fed fires and other issues contributing to crashes. We
will be entering our appearance as lead counsel in a Chicago
trial involving a 2002 Dodge van rollover that caused serious
injury to nine people."
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The
Powell Group never represented the Mulhall family, who retained
other counsel and elected not to pursue cause of action against
GM.
The
Arcure-Murphy lawsuit, filed June 15, 2001, claimed the victims
survived the crash and burned to death because of a faulty fuel
system.
It
alleged the victims wouldn't have suffered such a painful death
if changes had been made to make the fuel system safer.
The
Powell Group was persistent in attempting to force GM lawyers
to produce long-hidden "fire baby" documents about
under-the-hood, fuel-fed fires in Blazers manufactured between
1983 and 1994.
Attorney
Powell alleged that GM knew the Blazer was defective and deliberately
chose not to install a one-way valve, costing under $2, which
would have prohibited fuel from siphoning into the engine compartment.
He
said a 1973 analysis done by GM engineer Edward Ivey assigned
a $200,000 value to a human life and estimated that fuel-fed
fire deaths cost the company $2.40 for every GM vehicle on the
road.
Powell
alleged GM hid behind the skirts of attorney-client privilege
in its attempt to keep Ivey's report a secret.
He
said the document's existence was revealed in a Florida trial
when GM expert Ron Elwell revealed its existence was known to
corporate lawyers who interviewed Ivey in 1981.
Powell
said Elwell was responsible for compiling a "post-collision,
fuel-fed fire index" for GM. He said the report was provided
to his firm accidentally by GM lawyers.
The
battle over GM documents resulted in Olszewski appointing local
attorney Scott Gartley to determine which ones were protected
by attorney-client privilege.
The
judge approved the payment of a $26,925 fee to Gartley and apportioned
$22,886.25 to GM and $4,038.75 to the plaintiffs.
The
lawsuit also named David Pavelko, of Beaver Meadows, and Salvatore
Costa, of Beech Lake, as defendants.
The
Blazer was delivered to Costa, formerly of Honesdale, who sold
the vehicle to Pavelko's auto sale and reconditioning business
on Route 93, Sugarloaf, where Mulhall purchased it in 1990.
Powell
said claims against Pavelko and Costa would be dismissed.
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