Tesla ordered to pay $200 million in punitive damages over fatal crash

Tesla was found partly liable in a wrongful death case involving the electric vehicle company's Autopilot system, with a jury awarding the plaintiffs $200 million in punitive damages plus additional money in compensatory damages.

The case, which took place in a Miami courtroom over the last couple of weeks, centered on whether defects in Tesla's self-driving technology ultimately contributed to the death of 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon in 2019.

Along with the $200 million in punitive damages, Tesla was also ordered to pay around $43 million in compensatory damages directly to the plaintiffs.

Leon was killed when a man driving a Model S Tesla equipped with Tesla's Autopilot technology plowed through a T-shaped intersection and struck her and her boyfriend Dillon Angulo. Angulo survived but was gravely injured.

The federal jury held that Tesla bore significant responsibility in the incident and that George McGee, the Florida driver who lost sight of the road when he dropped his phone, was not entirely to blame.

"Today's verdict represents justice for Naibel's tragic death and Dillon's lifelong injuries, holding Tesla and Musk accountable for propping up the company's trillion-dollar valuation with self-driving hype at the expense of human lives," said the plaintiffs' attorney Brett Schreiber in a statement shared with CBS News.

The plaintiffs in the case originally asked for $345 million in damages during closing arguments on Thursday.

During the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs alleged that Tesla either hid or lost key evidence after a forensic data expert was able to recover data from the accident that Tesla said had been deleted.

"Today's verdict is wrong, and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla's and the entire industry's efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology," Tesla said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. "This was never about Autopilot; it was a fiction concocted by plaintiffs' lawyers blaming the car when the driver — from day one — admitted and accepted responsibility."

Tesla also said it plans to appeal the decision.

The case was a big test for the electric vehicle maker, which has been under scrutiny over the safety of its cars. Similar cases have been brought against Tesla, although many have been dismissed.

"This will open the floodgates," said Miguel Custodio, a car crash lawyer not involved in the Tesla case. "It will embolden a lot of people to come to court."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.