Dakota County Jury Awards $18.4 Million After Defective Jeep Shifter Causes Rollaway Amputation

In March 2022, Jeffrey Wu stepped out of his 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee at a Kwik Trip convenience store in Lakeville, Minnesota. The vehicle rolled backward, pinned him against the pavement, and crushed his left leg so severely that surgeons later amputated it.

The Jeep was equipped with a monostable gear shifter, a rotary knob that returns to a center position after every shift regardless of which gear the driver selects. Unlike a conventional lever, the knob provides no persistent tactile cue confirming the selected gear. Under a documented failure mode, a vehicle whose driver believed it was in Park could be in Reverse the moment they stepped out. Wu's Grand Cherokee also lacked an AutoPark failsafe, a system that engages the transmission automatically when a door opens while the engine runs and the vehicle is not in Park.

Evidence at trial showed FCA US LLC had internal records of the monostable shifter causing driver confusion as early as 2011. In 2016, the company issued a recall covering hundreds of thousands of Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles, including the Grand Cherokee. The recall addressed software warnings but did not add an AutoPark system. Wu's attorneys argued that FCA knew the 2016 remedy left the core hazard unresolved.

Wu and his wife, Ting Yang, sued FCA US in Dakota County District Court, case no. 19HA-CV-23-981. Genevieve Zimmerman of Meshbesher & Spence served as co-counsel alongside Kyle Farrar and Wes Ball of Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball. At trial, the plaintiffs introduced FCA's own records spanning more than a decade to show that a widely available safety feature could have prevented the rollaway.

The jury returned its verdict on April 17, 2026. Total damages came to $18.4 million: $12 million for Wu's future pain and disfigurement, $1.5 million for future lost earning capacity, $2.36 million in medical costs, approximately $106,000 in past lost earnings, and $2.5 million to Ting Yang for loss of companionship. Jurors declined to award punitive damages.

The jury assigned 70 percent of fault to FCA and 30 percent to Wu under Minnesota's comparative fault rules, reducing the net recovery to approximately $12.88 million. No post-verdict remittitur or appeal ruling has been reported.