ALEXANDRIA – American Honda Motor Co. Inc. (AHM) recently filed notice to remove a products liability lawsuit from the 9th Judicial District Court for Rapides Parish to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
AHM filed the notice of removal Oct. 9 in a wrongful death and survival action lawsuit filed July 3 in Rapides Parish on behalf of Cearey James, listed as the “natural tutor of the minor child” Adaleigh Marie James, individually and on behalf of the decedent Brett T. Lasyone. Laysone died in a 2017 single-vehicle car crash involving a 2008 Honda Accord driven by Emily Dauzart in Rapides Parish.
According to the filing, the plaintiff states that the death of Lasyone was caused by both the “negligence of Emily Dauzart” as well as “an unreasonably dangerous characteristic of the 2008 Honda Accord.” The plaintiff further alleges that Lasyone survived the initial accident but was consumed by a post-accident vehicle fire.”
The plaintiff is seeking damages for Lasyone’s minor children.
Further, on July 19, Donna Kay Robinson, “as tutor of Emily Dauzart’s minor children … filed a peition of intervention in the suit brought by plaintiff seeking recovery of wrongful death and survival action damages against AHM and Honda R&D Co. Ltd.” AHM then filed “Exceptions of No Right of Action and Improper Cumulation of Actions as to the Petition of Intervention filed by Donna Kay Robinson.”
According to the filing, “AHM contended that the wrongful death and survival action claims asserted by Donna Kay Robinson … should have been filed in a separate and independent lawsuit against AHM.”
The petition removing this lawsuit to district court was filed on behalf of AHM by its counsel, McGlinchey Stafford PLLC of New Orleans.
The car company has been under fire recently, most notably for the Takata air bag recall in which about 16.5 million Honda and Acura vehicles were affected. According to USA Today, Honda agreed to a $605 million class action settlement in 2017 “covering economic losses suffered by U.S. owners fitted with Takata air bags.”