Melvin and Voncile Hill had been killed in April 2014 within the rollover wreck of their 2002 Ford F-250. Their youngsters had been the plaintiffs within the wrongful loss of life case.
WOODSTOCK, Ga. — Ford Motor Co. plans to attraction a $1.7 billion verdict in opposition to the automaker after a pickup truck crash that claimed the lives of a Georgia couple, an organization consultant stated Sunday.
Jurors in Gwinnett County, simply northeast of Atlanta, returned the decision late final week within the yearslong civil case involving what the plaintiffs’ attorneys known as dangerously faulty roofs on Ford pickup vehicles, lawyer James Butler Jr. stated Sunday.
Melvin and Voncile Hill had been killed in April 2014 within the rollover wreck of their 2002 Ford F-250. Their youngsters Kim and Adam Hill had been the plaintiffs within the wrongful loss of life case.
“While our sympathies go out to the Hill family, we do not believe the verdict is supported by the evidence, and we plan to appeal,” Ford stated in an announcement to The Associated Press on Sunday.
Butler stated he was shocked by proof within the case.
“I used to buy Ford trucks,” Butler stated on Sunday. “I thought nobody would sell a truck with a roof this weak. The damn thing is useless in a wreck. You might as well drive a convertible.”
In closing arguments, attorneys employed by the corporate defended the actions of Ford and its engineers.
The Michigan-based automaker sought to defend the corporate in opposition to accusations “that Ford and its engineers acted willfully and wantonly, with a conscious indifference for the safety of the people who ride in their cars when they made these decisions about roof strength,” protection lawyer William Withrow Jr. stated in his closing arguments, in accordance with a courtroom transcript.
The allegation that Ford was irresponsible and willfully made choices that put clients in danger is “simply not the case,” one other protection lawyer, Paul Malek, stated in the identical closing argument.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs had submitted proof of practically 80 comparable rollover wrecks that concerned truck roofs being crushed that injured or killed motorist, Butler’s legislation agency, Butler Prather LLP, stated in an announcement.
“More deaths and severe injuries are certain because millions of these trucks are on the road,” Butler’s co-counsel, Gerald Davidson, stated within the assertion.
“An award of punitive damages to hopefully warn people riding around in the millions of those trucks Ford sold was the reason the Hill family insisted on a verdict,” Butler stated.
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