Yamaha liable for $3.1 mil. in paralysis of LV teacher

Friday, Feb. 27, 1998 | 10:14 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court Thursday ordered the Yamaha Motor Company to pay $3.1 million to a woman who was paralyzed from the waist down when her all-terrain vehicle flipped in the desert north of Las Vegas in 1991.

The court supported a Clark County jury verdict that company instructions failed to warn riders of the dangers of certain maneuvers on the ATV.

The money will go to Beth Arnoult, who was 25 at the time of the accident. Her paraplegia is expected to be permanent.

The jury originally awarded $3.6 million but the court cut the amount by $410,000, saying the jury was given duplicative evidence on one issue.

Arnoult was traveling about 20 mph when she climbed a 3-foot sand dune that had an angle of about 30 degrees and the vehicle flipped forward.

Yamaha contended Arnoult was trying a "hellacious jump" and it was operator error that caused the accident, not inadequate warnings in the owner's manual.

The high court, in its unanimous decision, said, "While there were warnings against jumping, the jury could have reasonably concluded that the warnings were inadequate to advise the novice user on how jumping could be avoided while using the vehicle as depicted (over rough terrain)."

The court said the owner's manual "does not address the possibility of flipping forward when the brakes are applied while cresting a hill or while trimming the throttle. Further, and most tellingly, the manual depicts a rider climbing a 30-degree slope in the exact manner as attempted by Arnoult.

"After weighing the entirety of the evidence, the jury was entitled to conclude that Yamaha fell short of its duty to properly warn of foreseeable dangers when using the ATV as suggested."

The court ordered a new hearing on payment of Arnoult's attorney fees to consider the good faith effort of Yamaha to settle the case.

In other decisions, the court:

* rejected the appeal of James E. Hill, sentenced to death for the sexual assault-murder of a 56-year-old Las Vegas woman. Hill and another man broke into the home of Leroy and Altonia Matthews. Leroy's attempts to fight the intruders were unsuccessful, and Altonia died two days later as a result of injuries inflicted by Hill. The court rejected his arguments that his trial attorney was ineffective; that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial; and that certain evidence should have been admitted.

* denied the appeal of Kevin J. Lisle, sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of Kip Logan in Las Vegas in October 1994. Lisle contended he never received the required notice that the grand jury was considering an indictment against him and that he had the opportunity to appear. The court rejected the issue.

* upheld the first degree murder conviction of Raymond G. Phenix, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the stabbing death of his wife Doreen in her car in the parking lot of a Las Vegas casino in 1991. The prosecution maintained Phenix killed his wife because he believed she had been unfaithful and also he wanted to collect money from her life insurance policies. The court agreed with Phenix that an instruction given to the jury was faulty but it said it was harmless error.