In a products liability case watched across continents, a jury this afternoon ordered Mitsubishi Motors to pay nearly $11 million in damages to a Maine couple whose son died after being partially ejected from a Nativa SUV. Jurors found that the auto giant placed the Nativa, marketed as the Montero in the United States, on the market with a defect.

Donna and Peter Laliberte argued that the auto giant was well aware of problems with the seat belt and seat recliner in the SUV. The Lalibertes argued that the flaws caused their son, Scott, to be partially ejected from a rear window of the 2000 Nativa in a rollover crash in September 2004.

Although he was wearing his passenger-side seat belt, Laliberte was catapulted backwards through the rear window and his head was crushed against the vehicle and ground, attorney W. Hampton Keen told jurors. Scott died hours later.