Hyundai Will Appeal $248 Million Jury Verdict

Hyundai Motor Co. intends to appeal an "outrageous" jury verdict that awarded $248 million to families of two teenagers killed in 2011 when their Tiburon sport coupe crashed, Bloomberg News reports.

The Montana jury awarded $8 million in actual damages and $240 million in punitive damages.

The plaintiffs blame the crash on a steering knuckle that broke. Hyundai attributes the cause to fireworks exploding in the car just before the crash. It says the jury's view of the evidence was skewed by several "erroneous" court rulings.

Bloomberg says the award is the largest ever that involves a claimed Hyundai product defect and the fifth-largest jury award so far this year in the U.S.