Ford Hit With $23.4M SUV Rollover Award

By Christopher Norton

Law360, New York (February 19, 2010) -- In the latest setback in Ford Motor Co.'s long-running Explorer rollover debacle, a California jury has reportedly awarded a $23.4 million verdict to a woman who became a quadriplegic after an accident in 2007.

Cynthia Castillo won a unanimous jury verdict on Thursday for an accident in which she lost control of her vehicle on a freeway when the tread detached from her left-rear tire, the Associated Press reported Friday. Castillo's suit was heard in the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, according to the Contra Costa Times.

Her 1997 Explorer rolled over three times after swerving off the highway, leaving her mostly paralyzed, according to the AP.

Castillo's attorney argued that flaws in the design of the SUV caused it to lose control after the tire tread separated, the AP reported.

Ford had claimed that an old tire caused the accident, not any inherent flaw in the design of the vehicle, the AP reported.

Representatives for Ford did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

The verdict comes on the heels of several other adverse developments for Ford stemming from litigation over Explorer rollovers.

On Feb. 9, a Delaware judge ruled that Mexican law cannot apply, as Ford had suggested, in a suit over a fatal rollover accident involving a Ford Explorer equipped with a recalled Firestone tire simply because the accident occurred in Mexico.

The Delaware state court ruled that the U.S. bore the most significant relationship to the case, which arises from a rollover accident in Durango, Mexico, in 2006 that killed Eloy Tudon Hernandez, a Mexican citizen. Hernandez was driving a Ford Explorer with a tire that was part of a Firestone recall, according to the court.

As in other cases involving Ford Explorers and Firestone tires, the tread separated from the tire, causing the car to flip, the court said.

In November, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear Ford's appeal to overturn an $82.6 million ruling in favor of a woman who claimed that a vehicular defect rendered her a paraplegic.

In that case, California resident Benetta Buell-Wilson sued Ford after the roof of her Ford Explorer caved in during a rollover accident, leaving her a paraplegic.

Buell-Wilson said she crashed after swerving to avoid falling debris from a mobile home in front of her. The punitive damages portion of the ruling totaled $55 million.

Ford has prevailed in other similar cases in the past, however.

In June, a Utah appeals court ruled the company could not be held liable in a wrongful death suit brought following a rollover in which a woman was injured and her fiance killed when their Explorer drifted off the road.

Ford settled a class action in 2008 on behalf of nearly 1 million consumers who claimed their Ford Explorers lost economic value because of their perceived rollover danger. Ford reached the settlement without admitting any wrongdoing.

The deal laid to rest economic loss and false advertising claims brought after more than 6 million Firestone tires on Explorers were recalled in 2000. The lawsuits alleged that the SUVs were likely to roll over, though the company had advertised the models as safe.

The case was heard in Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino. Other case and counsel information for the California suit were unavailable.

--Additional reporting by Julie Zeveloff, Nick Brown and Erin Marie Daly