Between 1999 and 2016, Ford Motor Company made a lot of money selling defective Super Duty trucks. Over 5.2 MILLION of the defective trucks were sold during the time period. The roofs on the trucks were dangerously weak and prone to collapse in the event of a rollover. This put vehicle occupants at risk of serious injury or death. Though Ford Motor Company knew about these risks, the defects remained concealed from the general public. As reports of injuries and fatalities mounted, Ford Motor Company continued to sell the defective trucks. No safety recall was issued.
In April 2014, two unknowing victims, 62-year-old Voncile Hill and her husband, 74-year-old Melvin Hill, were driving their 2002 Super Duty F-250 on a highway in Georgia when one of their truck’s tires blew out. The truck overturned, the roof caved in, and the elderly couple was crushed and killed.
In the negligence and wrongful death lawsuit that followed, attorneys for the couple’s estate sought out to prove that the couple would have survived the wreck if the truck’s roof had not been defectively designed and manufactured. At trial, the personal injury attorneys presented evidence of nearly 80 similar occasions where accident victims were either killed or seriously injured due to roofs on the defective trucks caving in during rollover accidents.
In August 2022, the jury for the case reached a verdict that held Ford Motor Company accountable for their negligence. The jury awarded the estate of the deceased couple $24 MILLION in damages as compensation for their loss. The jury awarded an additional $1.7 BILLION in compensation as punitive damages. The punitive damages award was meant to not only compensate the victims, but also to deter the injustice perpetrated by Ford Motor Company on the unsuspecting public.
At Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC, we firmly believe that justice requires accountability. To that end we stand with the plaintiffs’ attorneys in Hill v. Ford Motor Co. In such complex litigation involving defective products, either due to flawed design or faulty manufacture, our justice system provides a path to achieve accountability through a trial by jury. The victims deserve no less.
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Jury imposes $1.7 billion verdict, largest in state history, against Ford (ajc.com)
‘Heard Round the World:’ Ford Hit With $1.7B Punitive Damages Verdict in Ga. Trial (law.com)
BREAKING: $1.7B Verdict Handed Down Against Ford in Trial Over Fatal Rollover Crash (blog.cvn.com)
Ga. Jury Hits Ford With $1.7B Verdict In Rollover Trial (law360.com)