Court Rules In Porsche’s Favor In One Of The Paul Walker Wrongful Death Lawsuits

According toE! News, a ruling was handed down on the lawsuit that Kristine Rodas, the wife of Paul Walker’s passenger Roger Rodas, filed against Porsche. In this suit, the verdict came back in favor of Porsche, dismissing Rodas’ claims that the vehicle in which her husband and Walker had been driving contained faulty equipment.

One claim alleges “negligence and strict liability,” specifying that a faulty crash cage was to blame for Rodas’ death. The judge’s ruling indicates that Rodas died from injuries sustained during his collision with Walker during the crash, which no crash cage could have feasibly prevented. Another claim specifies that Porsche failed to warn Rodas and Walker of “substandard side impact protection,” but the judge shot this one down, as well, citing an expert’s testimony that the impact occurred at the front of the vehicle, where it fatally collided with the light pole, and not the side of the car. Rodas’ widow claimed that a design defect involving racing fuel may have contributed to fire that took her husband’s life, but the judge ruled against this, in light of undisputed evidence proving that Rodas did not die from fire-related injuries. In the final claim, regarding “failure of the suspension component,” the judge simply ruled that there was a lack of evidence to support the claim.

E! notes that Walker’s daughter, Meadow, filed a similar wrongful death lawsuit against Porsche, but that case is still ongoing. While the judge’s rulings sound well-founded, this news will regardless be met with outcry by Fast and Furious fans, not to mention the impending response from Rodas’ and Walker’s families.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post claimed that rulings in all three of the lawsuits against Porsche favored the automobile manufacturer. Only one ruling has been determined, as the lawsuits by Paul Walker’s father and Meadow Walker are still very much active. We regret this error.