Chefik Simo, an 18-year-old freshman on the varsity soccer team at Furman University, was a passenger in a 2000 Mitsubishi P45 Montero Sport, a sport-utility vehicle designed, manufactured, and sold by Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (collectively referred to here as "Mitsubishi").Simo suffered severe injuries when the Montero Sport rolled over on an interstate highway after the driver suddenly steered left to avoid another vehicle and then attempted to correct his course by quickly turning back to the right.While the vehicle was on its side, it was struck by a Federal Express truck.In the litigation referred to below, Simo presented testimony that he was the top soccer recruit in the country the year he entered college and was among the best players on the United States' "Under-20" national team.Simo had intended to begin his professional career in Europe following the conclusion of the soccer season at Furman.Many European teams, including some at the top levels, had expressed interest in signing Simo when he became available.

Simo's injuries from the accident included a fractured shoulder blade, a fractured pelvis, a dislocated shoulder, a ruptured small intestine, a broken wrist, a knee dislocation in his left leg involving a complete separation of the thigh bone from the shin bone, and tears of three of the four major ligaments in the knee.He suffered irreparable nerve damage that resulted in a "drop foot."As a result of these injuries, Simo underwent a number of surgeries and incurred more than $277,000 in medical bills.He engaged in arduous rehabilitation efforts in an attempt to resume his soccer career.When he returned to the field, however, he ended up overcompensating for his injuries to his left side, leading to painful stress fractures that forced him to terminate his comeback.Simo filed a strict liability lawsuit against Mitsubishi.

The following information appears in the court's opinion, but not in the summary of Case Problem 8: Simo presented the expert testimony of David Bilek, a person with experience in mechanical engineering, on the subjects of vehicle stability and design. Bilek had run stability tests and utilized data to evaluate vehicle dynamics for over 20 years in a litigation-consultant capacity. Bilek explained the physics involved in vehicle rollovers and discussed stability tests he performed on the Montero Sport, a testable prototype, and various sport utility vehicles ("SUVs") comparable to the Montero Sport. Bilek opined that in the well-designed vehicles, lateral force by a sudden turn would cause the vehicle's tires to slide on the pavement to the extent that they could not continue to grip the road. On the other hand, he explained that a vehicle like the Montero Sport that is unreasonably top-heavy can roll over untripped when the lateral forces on the vehicle reach a certain level. He also opined that, in light of information that had been disseminated from other manufacturers, a reasonable manufacturer would have performed testing on its vehicles to ensure that they would not rollover untripped. He opined that "handling" tests performed by Mitsubishi, in which the drivers did not expose the vehicles to forces strong enough to roll the vehicles over, were not sufficient.

Also providing testimony for Simo was engineer Michael Gilbert, who, like Bilek, testified that the Montero Sport rolled over untripped under certain circumstances, whereas better designed SUVs on the market did not. He further testified that designing a stable SUV is not a difficult task and had the Montero Sport been designed to have the stability of other SUVs, the accident at issue here never would have occurred.

In addition Patrick McCabe testified that an important part of his job as a sports agent was evaluating the worth of soccer players on the market. In estimating the income that Simo could have been expected to earn absent the injury, McCabe drew on his own evaluation of Simo's abilities as well as those of others involved with the sport who believed that Simo "was destined to become one of the top American players of his generation" before his accident.Based on this evaluation, as well as his awareness of the fact that Simo had wanted to pursue his soccer career in Europe, McCabe utilized his specialized knowledge of the earnings opportunities Simo would likely have had in his career. In so doing, he noted as a point of comparison the salaries of eight then-current or former left-footed players from the American Senior National Team.

1. In order to succeed in his strict liability defective product design claim, Simo must demonstrate via expert witness testimony a defect in design making the Mitsubishi SUV unreasonably dangerous, and the availability of a feasible, alternative design at the time the Mitsubishi SUV was manufactured. 2. On the basis of the evidence he presented at trial, Simo should be permitted to recover on the basis of breach of warranty of merchantability (the Mitsubishi SUV was not fit for the ordinary purposes for which SUVs are used), and negligent product design (there being evidence the automotive engineers were not careful in testing whether the SUV could resist untripped rollovers). 3. Simo can succeed in a breach of implied warranty claim against Mitsubishi, even though he did not purchase the car and there is no privity of contract between Simo and Mitsubishi. 4. Simo should be permitted to utilize the doctrine of res ipso loquitur to demonstrate his injuries were caused by negligent design of the Mitsubishi SUV. 5. If Simo establishes his claim of defective product design by a preponderance of evidence, he is entitled to recover damages for his personal injuries, but not for his lost career opportunity in soccer, those damages being too speculative in nature