Activist lawyers seek unsealing of Goodyear deposition

TRENTON, N.J. (Nov. 2)—A legal advocacy group has asked a New Jersey trial judge to unseal a deposition from a Goodyear engineer that, the group insists, will shed light on whether Goodyear knowingly sold defective tires. Trial Lawyers for Public Justice filed its motion before Judge Neil H. Shuster of the Mercer County Superior Court in Trenton. The sealed deposition was made as part of a product liability trial involving three U.S. Air Force personnel who were killed in 1997 in a General Motors Corp. Suburban minivan equipped with Goodyear 16-inch Load Range E tires. Spokesmen for Goodyear and the attorneys´ group could not be reached for comment. A "Los Angeles Times" article Oct. 24 fingered Load Range E tires as the target of several lawsuits. Goodyear said in a public statement that it knew of 30 accidents, 15 deaths and 125 injuries involving Load Range E tires, but had found no evidence of a defect in investigating all 30 accidents.