Ethics Newsline®

BARSTOW, California
A California jury ruled against Ford Motor Corporation last week, holding the company liable for damages in a civil suit because the company’s Explorer vehicle was “defective by design.”

In a 10-2 ruling, the jury sided with plaintiffs Agop and Catherine Gozukara, whose four-door 1994 Ford Explorer rolled over on a California highway three months after they bought it in 1997. The accident left Gozukara, who was not wearing a seat belt, paralyzed for life. Her husband sustained severe leg injuries.

“This is the first time in history that a jury has found this vehicle to be defective in design, in that it has a propensity to roll over,” said Garo Mardirossian, attorney for the plaintiffs, according to a Reuters report.

Although the jury found the Explorer to be “defective by design,” it also ruled that the defect was not the cause of the vehicle’s malfunction. Instead, the jury said, the accident was caused by shoddy repair work done by a California dealer, reported the Reuters news agency.

Four days after the ruling, the plaintiff’s agreed to settle their case for $14.9 million, including a $9.4 payment from the dealer, noted Reuters.

The ruling is widely seen as the first case wherein Ford has been found liable for manufacturing and shipping a faulty Explorer model. The company has come under intense scrutiny over the past two years as a rash of accidents linked to Explorers and Firestone tires left both companies reeling and pointing fingers at each other.