Montana Jury: Hyundai Owes $240M in Punitive Damages

A Montana jury has ordered Hyundai to pay $240 million in punitive damages after finding that a manufacturing defect in a Hyundai vehicle caused a crash that killed two Missoula cousins in July 2011. The award handed down late Tuesday was on top of $8.6 million in actual damages and lost earnings the jury awarded to the families of 19-year-old Trevor Olson and 14-year-old Tanner Olson. The cousins died when their 2005 Hyundai Tiburon slammed head-on into another car in 2011. It’s unclear if the punitive damages will stand. Montana has a $10 million cap on such damages, but that’s being challenged after a District Court judge in Butte ruled it wasn’t high enough to deter future wrongdoing by wealthy companies.