Ford had a $ 1.7 billion verdict in another case thrown and said that the jury discussed it, despite the judge’s orders
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- Ford asks a judge to throw a massive verdict of $ 2.5 billion in a case on roof safety.
- The automaker says the jurors were experiencing a previous $ 1.7 billion judgment against him.
- What they may not have known is that Ford managed to expel this case.
Car manufacturers are notoriously protective of their image, especially when the issues involve billions of dollars. Ford is no exception, and for the moment, they defend their reputation aggressively in a hearing room in Georgia after a record verdict rendered in February. The jury granted the Mills’ $ 2.5 billion family, judging that Ford was responsible for the death of two Super Duty truck owners.
The fatal incident
The deceased owners, Herman and Debra Mills, tragically lost their lives after the Ford F-250 in which they were planed, causing the collapse of the roof. The Mills family maintains that Ford knew the roofs on super service trucks – carried out between 1999 and 2016 – was structurally inadequate, but they continued to sell them. The jury apparently accepted because the verdict came in favor of the complainants.
Plus: Ford must pay $ 2.5 billion to the family of couples killed in a bearing crash
He allocated to the complainants, the Mills family, 2.5 billion dollars and now Ford wants this thrown judgment. He indicated that on the day of the verdict, a juror called the Ford’s legal team to express his concern. They said they thought that at least two people in the jury knew a previous $ 1.7 billion judgment against Ford in a very similar case.
The case in question, Hill c. Fordinvolved a similar scenario, where the roof of a Ford vehicle collapsed during an accident, which led to a death. Despite a judge who explicitly ordered the jury to avoid discussing the previous matter, they would have ignored this order. During the deliberations in the Mills case, a juror would have commented: “It could be a record.”
According to Documents seen by CarcomplaintsThe juror went further than making an appeal, because they sent the following message to the Ford legal advisor:
“The only thing I follow up earlier would be; And I think that the way the question was formulated was: I think there was an influence on this verdict because of what others knew and other jurors in response to the previous verdicts (that is to say: Hill Case) and monetary quantities: I will now tell you that my tight disorder. (SMS of the 36 juror at the Ford lawyer.)
Ford’s argument
In light of this, Ford argues that “the toxic influence of the hill verdict probably explains why the jury concluded that alleged injuries on the roof caused the complainants’ death in a record that establishes the opposite”.
Society also affirms that, although tragic, the collapse of the roof was not the main cause of the death of the couple Mills. Ford is now looking for either a new trial, or a reduction in the maximum constitutional damages of $ 4,675,000.
