Nissan Can Use Santa Monica Farmers Market Crash Evidence In Hollywood Case, Judge Rules

LOS ANGELES, CA — A judge ruled Monday that lawyers for Nissan and Continental Automotive Systems can only make indirect reference to a 2003 Santa Monica Farmers Market crash in which 10 people died when defending their companies during trial of a lawsuit involving a crash in Hollywood nine years later that killed a mother and two of her daughters.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Randolph Hammock said defense attorneys are barred from mentioning the Farmers Market crash by name, but can cite the facts of the case in support of their argument that driver error rather than an alleged car manufacturing defect caused the deaths of 27-year-old Saida Juana Mendez-Bernardino of Los Angeles and her daughters, Stephanie Cruz, 4, and Hilda Cruz, 6.

The defense attorneys' court papers cite an NTSB study of the Farmers Market crash that concluded octogenarian George Russell Weller erred when he accidentally accelerated while intending to apply the brakes on his 1992 Buick LeSabre on July 16, 2003. Weller, then 86, accelerated around a road closure sign, crashed through wooden sawhorses and plowed through the busy Arizona Avenue marketplace crowd at speeds between 40 and 60 mph, killing 10 people and injuring 63 others.

Hammock said it would be prejudicial to the plaintiffs if the Farmers Market incident were mentioned by name.

"That got a lot of publicity around here," Hammock said.

In contrast, Hammock said, he never heard of the deaths of Mendez- Bernardino and her children until the case came before him. "And I read the newspaper every day," he said.

The judge also ruled that attorneys for the plaintiffs can show jurors photos of the accident, but none that depict the victims' injuries.

"I'm not going to allow any graphic photos," Hammock said.

The Hollywood crash lawsuit alleges that the 2004 Infiniti QX56 driven by Solomon Mathenge, then 74, of Lawndale, had a software defect that caused the brakes to fail before the car struck the minivan containing Mendez- Bernardino and her daughters. Mathenge was driving north on Highland Avenue across Willoughby Avenue at about 7:20 a.m. Aug. 29, 2012, when he veered into oncoming traffic, police said previously.

Nissan manufactured the Infiniti and Continental Automotive made its braking components, according to the plaintiffs' attorneys.

Mendez-Bernardino's oldest daughter, also a minor, is a plaintiff in the consolidated case along with Mendez-Bernardino's mother, Juana De La Cruz Bernardino, and Hilario Cruz, the father of the two girls who died.

Mathenge has also brought cross-claims against Nissan and Continental Automotive Systems on product defect and negligence theories. Mathenge was originally the lone defendant in the case, but the corporate defendants were added after the plaintiffs' attorneys found out about a federal court class- action complaint involving braking complaints similar to those in the Hollywood case, according to their court papers.

Jury selection in the case is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

— City News Service. People gather Thursday, July 17, 2003, at a memorial at the site of a deadly car crash at the Farmers' Market in Santa Monica, Calif. An 86-year-old man whose car plowed through a crowded farmers market, killing nine and injuring up to 45 others, had recently damaged his own garage with his car, police said Thursday. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)