🚚Jury awards $1.7Billion in damages to the family of a couple killed in Ford F-250 rollover
Ford Motor Co. intends to appeal a jury’s verdict ordering it to pay $1.7 billion in damages over a 2014 pickup truck rollover in which a Georgia couple was killed, several news sources have reported.
The Hills died in 2014 2014 when their 2002 Ford F-250 pickup rolled over. The couple’s children, had filed a wrongful death claim against the Ford, alleging that a defective roof design on the truck was responsible for their parents’ deaths.
The Hills were driving from their farm in Reynolds, Georgia, when a tire ruptured and the truck rolled over, crushing them.
After a 14-day trial, jurors in Gwinnett County, Georgia, returned their verdict , imposing $1.7 billion in punitive damages against Ford
the jury allocated 70 percent of the blame to Ford. The remainder was allocated to Pep Boys, which “mistakenly installed the wrong size, or ‘load range’ tires on the Hills’ truck in 2010.”
Jim Butler Jr., the attorney who won the verdict, told CNN that evidence presented in the case showed that the F-250s made in the 17 model years before 2017 all pose a risk to drivers and passengers in cases of a rollover.
Butler conceded to CNN that the $1.7 billion verdict is likely to be reduced on appeal. He said the plaintiffs pursued the litigation hoping to warn motorists about the trucks’ roofs.