(Bloomberg) — A Texas jury ordered Volkswagen AG's Audi unit to pay $124.5 million to an 11-year-old boy who was left brain damaged in a 2012 rear-end collision.

The parents of Jesse Rivera Jr. claimed the seat back of the 2005 Audi A4 was too weak to withstand a rear-end crash. The front seat collapsed, and the driver, the boy's father, slid backwards hitting his head on his son's in the back seat, said the family's attorney, Jeff Wigington.

Audi denied any defects or fault for the boy's injuries. Audi is "not pleased with the verdict and we will evaluate the next steps to be taken," Mark Clothier, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.