Dillon Angulo, 33, looks at a roadside memorial sign reading “Drive Safely In Memory Naibel Benavidez” next to the site of a car crash where a Tesla driver using Autopilot killed her, and left him catastrophically injured in 2019, on Aug. 12, 2025, in Key Largo, Florida.
Eva Marie Uzcategui | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Tesla, the electric vehicle behemoth helmed by Elon Musk, is gearing up for a legal showdown, challenging a recent verdict that could cost the company a hefty $242.5 million in damages. The case, a product liability and wrongful death suit, stems from a fatal incident involving Tesla’s Autopilot system.
Musk’s automaker has officially requested the court to either overturn the existing verdict or grant a new trial in Florida’s Southern District. The legal maneuver comes after a jury determined Tesla was partially liable for the accident.
Gibson Dunn, the prestigious law firm representing Tesla, is arguing that the compensatory damages awarded in the case are excessive. They are pushing for a significant reduction, from $129 million to a more palatable $69 million. If successful, and the original verdict holding Tesla liable stands, the automaker would face a $23 million payout.
Furthermore, Gibson Dunn is challenging the punitive damages awarded, arguing that they should be eliminated entirely or capped at a maximum of three times the compensatory damages, citing Florida state law.
At the heart of the legal battle is a tragic 2019 incident in Key Largo, Florida. George McGee was behind the wheel of his Tesla Model S, utilizing the company’s Enhanced Autopilot system, a partially automated driving feature.
According to court testimony, McGee dropped his mobile phone while driving and briefly looked away from the road to retrieve it. He stated that he believed Enhanced Autopilot would automatically engage the brakes if an obstacle was detected.
However, McGee’s Model S accelerated through an intersection at over 60 miles per hour, colliding with an empty parked car and, tragically, its owners, who were standing nearby.
The impact resulted in the death of 22-year-old Naibel Benavides and left her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, with severe injuries.
Earlier this month, a jury in a Miami federal court ruled that Tesla should compensate the family of the deceased and the injured survivor, awarding a total of $329 million in damages, with Tesla responsible for $242.5 million of that sum.
In their appeal, Tesla’s legal team maintains that the Model S vehicle was free of design defects, and even if such defects existed, they were not the primary cause of the crash. They argue that the driver’s actions were solely responsible.
“For as long as drivers remain at the wheel, any safety feature may embolden a few reckless drivers while enhancing safety for countless others,” the appeal documents state. “Holding Tesla liable for providing drivers with advanced safety features just because a reckless driver overrode them cannot be reconciled with Florida law.”
Brett Schreiber, the lead trial counsel for the plaintiffs, expressed confidence that the court will uphold the original verdict. He emphasized that the ruling should not be interpreted as a broad condemnation of the autonomous vehicle industry, but rather as a specific rebuke of Tesla’s “reckless and unsafe development and deployment of its Autopilot system.”
“The jury heard all the facts and came to the right conclusion that this was a case of shared responsibility but that does not discount the integral role Autopilot and the company’s misrepresentations of its capabilities played in the crash,” Schreiber said.
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