LIABLE FOR AUTO INJURIES.

The New York Times
April 25, 1914

Seller, Not Maker, to Pay $8,000 Damages, is Verdict in Test Case.

SYRACUSE, N. Y., April 24.—A jury in the United States Court decided to-day, in effect, that the occupant of an automobile who is injured by the breaking of a certain part of the car can recover damages from the company which assembled and sold the automobile rather than from the manufacturer of the part that broke.  On this ground the jury awarded $8,000 damages to E. Wells Johnson of Amsterdam, N. Y., against an automobile company of Detroit.

Johnson sued the company to recover damages for injuries received in 1909 when a wheel on his automobile broke and the car turned turtle.  The company intended that if any one was liable, except the plaintiff, it was the manufacturer of the wheel.  This was a test case, and the outcome was waited by automobile makers throughout the country.