Aug 21 (Reuters) – A jury in Gerogia has returned a $1.7 billion verdict towards Ford Motor Co (F.N) involving a pickup truck crash that claimed the lives of a pair, the AP reported on Sunday.
James Butler Jr., lawyer for the Georgia couple Melvin and Voncile Hill who had been killed in April 2014 within the rollover wreck of their 2002 Ford F-250, stated on Sunday that jurors in Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta, returned the decision late final week, AP reported. https://bit.ly/3PGdcHl
The couple’s kids, Kim and Adam Hill, had been the plaintiffs within the yearslong wrongful dying case, involving what their attorneys referred to as dangerously faulty roofs on Ford pickup vans.
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Legal professionals for the plaintiffs had submitted proof of practically 80 related rollover wrecks that concerned truck roofs being crushed that injured or killed motorists, Butler’s legislation agency, Butler Prather LLP, stated in an announcement to the information company.
“An award of punitive damages to hopefully warn individuals using round within the thousands and thousands of these vans Ford offered was the explanation the Hill household insisted on a verdict,” AP reported, quoting Butler.
Ford didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for touch upon Sunday.
In line with closing arguments made in court docket by protection lawyer William Withrow Jr., the automaker defended itself from accusations “that Ford and its engineers acted willfully and wantonly, with a acutely aware indifference for the protection of the individuals who trip of their automobiles once they made these choices about roof power,” AP stated.
Paul Manke, one other defence lawyer, stated that the allegation that Ford was irresponsible and willfully made choices that put clients in danger is “merely not the case,” AP reported.
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Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; enhancing by Diane Craft
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