Texas Judge to Enter Judgment on $225 Million Verdict Against Ford
Jurors in the Texas District Court for Duval County, 229th District Court, on Dec. 13, 2002, awarded the judgment to the families of two occupants killed when their 2000 F-150 extended cab pickup rolled over in a single vehicle accident on a remote road in South Texas in July 2001. Judge Alex W. Gabert presided over he trial.
The jury found that the Ford F-150 supercab was defectively designed and that the driver was not negligent when he lost control of the vehicle.
The jury awarded $115 million to the mother of passenger Laura Benavides and $110 million to the mother of Paul Alaniz, driver of the pickup truck, according to court records.
Ford Considering Appeal
Attorneys for Ford are considering filing an appeal.
The plaintiffs alleged design flaws of the 2000 F-150 four-door super cab allowed both doors on the driver's side to unlatch and open during the rollover onto the passenger side, causing ejection of Alaniz and Benavides, who was seated directly behind the driver. During the rollover, passenger side doors remained closed and both individuals on that side of the vehicle were uninjured, David Rumley, one of the attorneys representing the Alaniz family, told BNA Jan. 8.
The front and rear doors on the F-150 open from the middle like a "barn door," and latch together, Rumley said. The back doors do not have a handle on the outside and open from a latch inside the vehicle.
Jurors also heard testimony that Ford used latches on the truck that have some plastic components, which tend to break instead of bending, as would an all-metal latch in a rollover accident, according to Rumley.
None of the passengers was wearing seat belts. Data presented during the trial showed that Alaniz had a blood alcohol level of 0.04, half the Texas limit for drunken driving. But Rumley said the driver's blood alcohol level was elevated because the blood sample was unrefrigerated for about five hours, not from drinking.
Ford Cites Driver Negligence
Ford argued during the trial that Alaniz's negligence caused the accident and deaths.
"Our condolences go out to the families involved but this accident was caused by a speeding driver losing control of his vehicle," Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes told BNA Jan. 9. "This accident is another tragic reminder that people should not drink and drive and seat belts can save lives only when they are worn."
During the two-week trial, plaintiffs argued the pickup truck did not have the center roof support, or "B" pillar, to support the structure between the A pillar at the windshield and the C pillar at the back window. Thus, in rollovers, the vehicle's roof crushes down, the door latches fail, and the doors come open, said Rumley.
"When you have the doors come open the seat belts do not do any good," Rumley said. He also alleged that Ford uses a lesser grade of steel in the pickup truck roofs.
Jurors viewed a Dolly-Rollover Test that was conducted by Ford's experts for purposes of recreating the rollover accident in their defense of the case. However, during Ford's first rollover test done for this litigation, as soon at the truck came into contact with the ground, the opposite driver side doors started coming open even before the first roll, partially ejecting the test dummies, Rumley added.
"We used Ford's own tests for this litigation to establish our case," Rumley said. Ford conducted the tests after the Alaniz and Benavides families filed suit, he added.
Rumley also told BNA that testimony during the trial included safety test data from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, which rated the F-150 extended cab "poor" when compared to other trucks in its class.
Ford's defense team was led by Jaime A. Saenz, of Rodriguez, Colvin & Chaney of Brownsville, Texas. Co-counsel included Rosewell Page of McGuire Woods of Richmond, Va.; Darrell L. Barger of Hartline, Dacus, Barger, Dreyer & Kern of Corpus Christi, Texas; Michael W. Eady of Brown McCarroll LLP of Austin, Texas; and Buster Adami of Adami, McNeill, Paisley & Addell of Alice, Texas.
William J. Tinning and Bryan K. Harris, both with the Corpus Christi law firm Harris Mejia & Tinning, represented the Benavides family. Baldemar Gutierrez of Alice, Texas, was co-counsel.
Rumley is with Wigington Rumley. His partner, Jeff Wigington, also represented the Alaniz family.
Copyright © 2003 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.
To read more about door latch safety, visit Wigington Rumley's Ford Door Latch Litigation site.