The plaintiffs arguing that a Cooper tyre contributed to a fatal 2005 van accident have been granted wide access to documents belonging to Cooper. This court decision, reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, has been described as “breathtaking” by Cooper. A company lawyer wrote in an affidavit that the scope of the search the plaintiffs will be permitted to carry out is “broader than has ever been applied to Cooper in any product-liability lawsuit.”
The families of those killed and injured in the 2005 accident believe the van’s tyre failed due to design and manufacturing failures, therefore a broad search of Cooper’s information is justified. However Cooper disagrees, and believes the search should be restricted to information about tyres similar to the one that failed and manufactured at a similar date – otherwise it could be forced to reveal sensitive trade information.
Cooper has requested the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals dismiss the discovery order, claiming it would take a dozen lawyers 10 weeks and almost $1.5 million to sort through as many as 1.5 million documents to find those relevant to the case at hand. A spokeswoman for Cooper says this request has been made purely as the company wishes to protect its legitimate commercial and trade secrets. (Tyres & Accessories/Staffordshire, U.K.)
