By Dean Seal
Transportation-equipment maker Wabash National said an appellate court has slashed the amount of punitive damages it owes in litigation tied to a deadly trailer crash, reducing the amount by more than 75% to $108 million.
Wabash said Monday that a circuit court found the $450 million in punitive damages ordered by a St. Louis jury last fall didn't align with the company's constitutional rights.
The court ruled that Wabash instead owes $108 million in punitive damages, and that it is still on the line for $11.5 million in compensatory damages.
A jury found last year that Lafayette, Ind.-based Wabash was liable in a 2019 accident in which two men were killed when their car slammed into the rear of a Wabash-made trailer.
Families of the crash victims argued that the trailer's rear-impact guard wasn't strong enough to prevent the deaths. The guards are intended to keep smaller vehicles that crash into the back of tractor trailers from sliding underneath.
Wabash had argued that the trailer complied with all existing regulatory standards when it was manufactured in 2004 and that the 2019 crash wasn't survivable.
The company said Monday that it still believes the verdict isn't supported by the facts or law, and that the damages awarded remain abnormally high. Wabash is still evaluating its legal options going forward.
Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 24, 2025 09:20 ET (13:20 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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