Georgia jury awards $1.7 billion in Ford truck crash case- AP

(Reuters) – A jury in Gerogia has returned a $1.7 billion verdict in opposition to Ford Motor Co involving a pickup truck crash that claimed the lives of a pair, the AP reported on Sunday.

James Butler Jr., lawyer for the Georgia couple Melvin and Voncile Hill who had been killed in April 2014 within the rollover wreck of their 2002 Ford F-250, stated on Sunday that jurors in Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta, returned the decision late final week, AP reported.

The couple’s youngsters, Kim and Adam Hill, had been the plaintiffs within the yearslong wrongful loss of life case, involving what their legal professionals referred to as dangerously faulty roofs on Ford pickup vans.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs had submitted proof of almost 80 related rollover wrecks that concerned truck roofs being crushed that injured or killed motorists, Butler’s regulation agency, Butler Prather LLP, stated in an announcement to the information company.

“An award of punitive damages to hopefully warn folks using round within the hundreds of thousands of these vans Ford bought was the explanation the Hill household insisted on a verdict,” AP reported, quoting Butler.

Ford didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for touch upon Sunday.

In accordance with closing arguments made in courtroom by protection lawyer William Withrow Jr., the automaker defended itself from accusations “that Ford and its engineers acted willfully and wantonly, with a aware indifference for the protection of the individuals who experience of their vehicles once they made these selections about roof energy,” AP stated.

Paul Manke, one other defence lawyer, stated that the allegation that Ford was irresponsible and willfully made selections that put clients in danger is “merely not the case,” AP reported.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; modifying by Diane Craft)