Delaware Jury Awards $1.6 Million Over Fatal Kia Seat Belt Defect

On March 7, 2015, Ludmilla Permint was driving a 2014 Kia Soul through Sussex County when another vehicle struck her car. Her husband, Charles Permint, sat in the front passenger seat. He was 74 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, and weighed 240 pounds. The impact drove him into the dashboard, and the medical examiner later determined his cause of death was blunt chest trauma.

The Permint family, including Charles's widow, son, daughter, and granddaughter, sued Kia Motors Corporation, Kia Motors America, and the Delaware dealership defendants. Their case centered on the Kia Soul's seat belt and restraint system. Plaintiffs' expert John Yannaccone testified that Kia had multiple design alternatives available, including raising the threshold on the load limiter or adding a stop feature, and that without them the system was unsafe for larger occupants. A second expert, Scott Batterman, testified that a stop feature in the design would have prevented Permint's death. Two medical experts testified that the chest impact caused his fatal cardiac injury.

The case went to trial in Delaware Superior Court before Judge Vivian L. Medinilla. Testimony began March 7, 2022, and after a two-week trial the jury returned its verdict on March 18, 2022. The jury found Kia Motors Corporation and/or Kia Motors America negligent in the design of the seatbelt and restraint system, and found all defendants negligent in failing to warn Permint about its risks to larger occupants. The jury awarded $1,600,000 in compensatory damages, which it apportioned among the family under Delaware's wrongful death statute: 65 percent to his widow, 15 percent to his son, and 10 percent each to his daughter and granddaughter.

Kia moved for judgment as a matter of law or, alternatively, a new trial, arguing the verdict was inconsistent and that the court had made evidentiary and instructional errors. On July 1, 2022, Judge Medinilla denied the motion in full, finding the verdict reasonable and the trial free of the errors Kia alleged.

The same day, the court ruled on the family's request for costs and interest. Because the family had made a written settlement demand in October 2019 for less than the jury later awarded, the court granted prejudgment interest of $647,276.67 under Delaware's interest statute, along with post-judgment interest running at $241.10 per day. Combined with the verdict, the total judgment came to roughly $2.25 million. Kia had argued the interest should be reduced because of a co-defendant's bankruptcy stay and pandemic-related court delays; the court rejected both arguments and found nothing showing the family had caused the delay.

Jimmy Chong of Chong Law Firm, P.A. in Wilmington represented the family at trial, together with Michael V. Tinari and Christopher P. Fleming of Leonard, Sciolla, Leonard & Tinari in Philadelphia. No appellate decision in the case appears in Delaware's published opinions, and the judgment stands as entered.