Georgia jury awards $1.7 billion in Ford truck accident case, AP reports

Aug 21 (Reuters) – A jury in Georgia has returned a $1.7 billion verdict against Ford Motor Co (FN) over a pickup truck accident that killed a couple, reported AP on Sunday.

James Butler Jr., attorney for Georgia couple Melvin and Voncile Hill, who died in April 2014 when their 2002 Ford F-250 rolled over, said Sunday that a jury in Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta, returned the verdict late last week, the AP reported. https://bit.ly/3PGdcHl

The couple’s children, Kim and Adam Hill, were plaintiffs in the year-long wrongful death case over what their attorneys described as dangerously defective Ford pickup truck roofs.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs have presented evidence of nearly 80 similar truck-roof rollovers that have left motorists injured or killed, Butler’s law firm Butler Prather LLP said in a statement to the news agency.

“An award of punitive damages, hopefully to warn the people driving around in the millions of these trucks sold by Ford, was the reason the Hill family insisted on a verdict,” the AP reported, citing Butler.

Ford did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Sunday.

After final arguments in court from defense attorney William Withrow Jr., the automaker defended itself against allegations “that Ford and its engineers acted willfully and wantonly, with conscious indifference to the safety of the people riding in their cars when they made it.” those roof strength decisions,” the AP said.

Paul Manke, another defense attorney, said the allegation that Ford was irresponsible and willfully made decisions that put customers at risk “simply isn’t the case,” the AP reported.

Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Diane Craft

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