Smith v. Toyota Motor Corp., No. 18-2585 (8th Cir. 2020)
Annotate this Case
Plaintiff filed suit against Toyota in strict products liability, negligence, and breach of warranty for injuries she sustained in a single-vehicle roll over accident. Plaintiff alleged that her 1997 Toyota 4Runner was unreasonably prone to roll over and that its seatbelt system failed to restrain her during the accident.
Given plaintiff's concession that there was no evidence relating to the design of the seatbelt and that her claims instead centered on FMVSS 209, the Eighth Circuit held that the district court did not err in determining that she had abandoned her claim for strict liability. The court declined to reach plaintiff's evidentiary arguments because she failed to preserve them. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: [Kobes, Author, with Loken and Colloton, Circuit Judges] Civil case -Products liability. Given plaintiff's concessions that there was no evidence relating to the design of the seatbelt in her Toyota 4Runner and that her claim centered instead on failure to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 209, the district court did not err in determining she had abandoned her claim for strict liability; plaintiff failed to preserve her arguments that the district court improperly allowed Toyota to introduce hearsay about the previous owner's modifications to the truck.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.