Ford asks for new trial after $1.7 billion jury verdict in truck rollover lawsuit

Ford Motor Co. is asking a Georgia court for a new trial, after a jury reached a $1.7 billion verdict against the auto maker last month involving a truck rollover accident that left two people dead.

In new court filings Monday, Ford said it was unfairly precluded from providing evidence that would have demonstrated the truck involved in the fatal incident was safe and the roof structure was stronger than many of its peers.

The trial is over a 2014 crash that killed two members of the plaintiffs’ family. The family sued Ford, alleging that the truck’s roof design was faulty and vulnerable to collapse during a rollover crash.

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The car company argued Monday that a state judge in 2018 effectively barred Ford from defending itself against the plaintiffs’ claims that the truck’s roof design was defective, according to the most recent filings.

Ford also said in the filings that it wasn’t able to sufficiently show at trial other factors at play that could have contributed to the fatalities, including its contention that the occupants weren’t properly wearing their seat belts.

"Ford didn’t get to put its case on," said Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for the auto maker. "It was fighting with two hands behind its back."

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Ford filed two motions Monday in the state court of Gwinnett County in Georgia. One motion sought a new trial, while the other challenged the punitive damages imposed on the company in August.

James Butler, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said he would address the points Ford raised in these motions and added that he doesn’t believe Ford has a defense to present.

The fatal crash occurred in 2014, when the Hills were driving from their farm in Georgia. The right front tire of the couple’s heavy-duty truck blew out and the vehicle rolled over, according to court documents.

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The Hills were crushed inside the truck, said James Butler, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case.

Lawyers for the Hill family argued at trial that the roofs installed on the 1999-2016 Super-Duty trucks had a defective design, were dangerously weak, and that the company allegedly knew of the risks they posed.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys also said in a pretrial order that Ford has identified 162 lawsuits involving roof-crush incidents in these specific model-year trucks.

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Mr. Boutrous said there are other factors that can cause injury in a violent rollover crash that aren’t related to the roof design. He also said that, in four other lawsuits involving similar rollover incidents in Ford trucks, the company prevailed. Three of them were decided by a jury, he said.

In the Hill case, Ford’s lawyers had argued that the tire installed on the couple’s truck had the incorrect load-carrying capacity, which led it to fail. Ford said that when the tire ruptured, Mr. Hill improperly steered his truck, causing it to leave the roadway at a "dangerous angle."

"There are millions of these vehicles on the road around the United States," Mr. Boutrous said. "The safety record is strong."

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the auto industry’s top safety regulator, shows no investigative action or safety recalls related to incidents of collapsed roofs involving 1999-2016 heavy-duty Ford pickups.