Law Offices of Charles D. Naylor

Expert legal representation for maritime workers and cruise ship passengers.

310-514-1200
  • Free Injury Hotlines
    • Cruise Injury Hotline
    • Longshore Injury Hotline
    • Seamen Injury Hotline
    • Shipyard Injury Hotline
  • Practice Areas
    • Maritime Personal Injury
    • Jones Act
    • Cruise Ship Injury
    • Commercial Fishing Injury
    • Longshore & Harbor Workers
    • Shipyard Accidents Attorney
    • Maritime Wrongful Death
    • Maritime Trucking Accidents
    • Boating Accidents
    • Catastrophic Injury
    • Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA)
    • Defense Base Act
  • About Us
    • Charles D. Naylor
    • How We Work
  • Client Reviews
    • Verdicts & Settlements
    • Longshore Worker Wrongful Death Claim
    • Client Satisfaction Survey
  • Legal Resources
  • Videos
    • Injured At Work?
    • How To Choose The Best Doctor
    • What Is The Longshore Act?
    • Cruise Ship Injuries: Know Your Rights!
    • Naylor: Attorney of the Year Finalist
    • Defense Base Act
    • Commercial Fishing Accidents
    • What Is The Jones Act?
    • How To Document An Accident Scene At Work
  • Blog
  • Contact
You are here: Home / News / In The News / Victim’s Wife Says Battle Is Not Over

March 10, 2007 By naylorlaw

Victim’s Wife Says Battle Is Not Over

DAILY BREEZE

By Doug Irving, Staff Writer

The widow of a San Pedro longshoreman crushed by a Dodge pickup plans to use millions of dollars she won from the automaker to publicize defects in those and other vehicles.

Adriana Mraz said Friday that she has little hope of collecting the full $55.2 million judgment awarded this week by a Los Angeles jury. But that verdict, she said, “opens a window” on what she described as a dangerous design flaw in the truck.

Her husband, Richard Mraz, died in 2004 after a Dodge Dakota truck he thought he had left in park at the Port of Los Angeles backed into him. Jurors found that a defect in the vehicle’s transmission system allowed it to slip into reverse — and that automaker DaimlerChrysler was negligent in Mraz’s death.

Mrs. Mraz said the award is “very gratifying” but means “nothing, because it doesn’t bring my husband back.” She said she would like to use the money to launch a consumer Web site to alert people to vehicle design problems, although she expects the award to be whittled down on appeal.

“His memory needs to live on somehow,” she said.

Her husband was 38 years old and working at the American Presidents Line container terminal on Terminal Island when the accident happened in April 2004. He had gotten out of the truck and was run over when it began rolling backward and he tried to stop it.

The family’s attorney, Charles Naylor, argued that a transmission flaw in Dakotas manufactured from 1988 to 2003 made it possible for them to put themselves into reverse. The gearshift, he argued, could stick between park and reverse and then slip into reverse several seconds later.

DaimlerChrysler issued a recall on Dodge Dakotas in 2000 to fix the so-called “park-to-reverse” problem. But Naylor argued that the repair it offered was inadequate, and that the company could not prove it had sent a recall notice to the owner of the truck Mraz was driving that day.

DaimlerChrysler has indicated that it may appeal the Los Angeles verdict. The company blamed the accident on driver error, arguing that Mraz left the truck in reverse when he got out.
A company spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment on Friday.

Company attorney Louann Van Der Wiele said the accident “occurred because Mr. Mraz ignored proper safety procedures by exiting a vehicle that was still running.” He compounded the problem, she said, by “attempting to jump into the vehicle while it was moving.”

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury, though, found DaimlerChrysler mostly at fault for the accident that killed Mraz. It also assigned 10 percent of the blame to Mraz, and 15 percent to his employer, APL.
The jury ordered DaimlerChrysler to pay $5.2 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages.

“There are thousands of these vehicles that have had the recall. They’re not fixed,” Naylor said Friday. Mraz, he added, “paid the price.”

Mraz had a 3-year-old daughter and two teenage stepsons; his widow said some of the verdict would pay for them to go to college. She described him as a family man who volunteered for book fairs and the annual church carnival.

They met online in 2000, and married two years later.

“He was wonderful,” she said. “It was a dream to him to have a family.”

[email protected]

Staff writer Kristopher Hanson contributed to this article.

Filed Under: In The News

Get a
Free Case Review

Are You Injured?

  • Cruise Injury Hotline
  • Longshore Injury Hotline
  • Seamen Injury Hotline
  • Shipyard Injury Hotline

Know Your Rights

  • Injured At Work? Here’s What You Need to Know
  • How To Document An Accident Scene At Work
  • How To Choose The Best Doctor For Your Compensation Claim
  • Commercial Fishing Accidents: What You Should Know
  • Defense Base Act: Coverage, Benefits and Compensation
  • What Is The Jones Act?
  • What Is The Longshore And Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act?
  • Cruise Ship Injuries And Your Rights
  • Charles D. Naylor Named Consumer Attorney of the Year Finalist
Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year Charles D. Naylor Certified Specialist_Charles D. Naylor
Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group_Charles D. Naylor American Association for Justice_Charles D Naylor

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Connect

Copyright © 2023 · NaylorLaw.com. All Rights Reserved. · Privacy Policy · Disclaimer · Sitemap · Call Us Toll-Free: 888-440-5829 · Local: 310-514-1200 ·
Law Offices of Charles D. Naylor · 11 Golden Shore, Suite 350, Long Beach, CA 90802