Ford will appeal $1.7 billion US verdict in civil lawsuit after deadly F-250 pickup truck crash

Ford Motor Co. plans to enchantment a $1.7 billion US ($2.2 billion Cdn) verdict towards the automaker after a pickup truck crash that claimed the lives of a Georgia couple, an organization consultant mentioned Sunday.

Jurors in Gwinnett County, simply northeast of Atlanta, returned the decision late final week within the years lengthy civil case involving what the plaintiffs’ attorneys referred to as dangerously faulty roofs on Ford pickup vehicles, lawyer James Butler Jr. mentioned Sunday.

Melvin and Voncile Hill had been killed in April 2014 within the rollover wreck of their 2002 Ford F-250. Their kids, Kim and Adam Hill, had been the plaintiffs within the wrongful loss of life case.

“Whereas our sympathies exit to the Hill household, we don’t consider the decision is supported by the proof, and we plan to enchantment,” Ford mentioned in an announcement to the Related Press on Sunday.

Butler mentioned he was surprised by proof within the case.

“I used to purchase Ford vehicles,” Butler mentioned on Sunday. “I assumed no one would promote a truck with a roof this weak. The rattling factor is ineffective in a wreck. You may as properly 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 itself towards accusations “that Ford and its engineers acted willfully and wantonly, with a acutely aware indifference for the protection of the individuals who experience of their vehicles after they made these selections about roof power,” defence lawyer William Withrow Jr. mentioned in his closing arguments, in line with a courtroom transcript.

The allegation that Ford was irresponsible and willfully made selections that put prospects in danger is “merely not the case,” one other defence lawyer, Paul Malek, mentioned in the identical closing argument.

Legal professionals for the plaintiffs had submitted proof of practically 80 comparable rollover wrecks that concerned truck roofs being crushed that injured or killed motorists, Butler’s regulation agency, Butler Prather LLP, mentioned in an announcement.

“Extra deaths and extreme accidents are sure as a result of thousands and thousands of those vehicles are on the highway,” Butler’s co-counsel, Gerald Davidson, mentioned within the assertion.

“An award of punitive damages to hopefully warn individuals driving round within the thousands and thousands of these vehicles Ford bought was the explanation the Hill household insisted on a verdict,” Butler mentioned.