TOKYO - Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors said on May 9 that it had been told by a US court to pay US$1.01 billion (S$1.37 billion) in damages over a 2017 car accident in the United States, adding that it will appeal.

The plaintiff blamed a defective seatbelt design in her husband Francis Amagasu’s 1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT that left him with severe injuries after the crash in Pennsylvania.