$18,349,391 Verdict Against Ford Motor Company For Alleged 15-Passenger Van Design Defect; Jury Found Ford 100% Responsible
A San Francisco jury rendered a verdict in the amount of $18,349,391 against Ford Motor Company following a 3 week product liability design defect trial in San Francisco. The jury determined that the seat latch system of the Ford 350 Econo van was defective after a 39-year old musician with the band Subtle was rendered a quadriplegic after the Ford 15-passenger Econo van rolled over on an icy road. The 39-year old musician, Dax Pierson, suffered severe spinal injuries when the Ford 15-passenger van that the band was traveling in ran off an icy highway and rolled over in a ditch on February 24, 2005. Pierson sued Ford for creating a defective seat latching mechanism that caused the seat to become loose resulting in his head hitting the roof of the rolled over van. The Ford Motor Company argued during the trial that the design was not defective and that the van driver was partly at fault. The accomplished lawyers representing the injured plaintiff, Dan Dello’Osso, along with Kevin Quinn and James Doyle, are applauded by the 15-passenger van and SUV rollover lawyers at Reiff and Bily who have known for a long time simply that the 15-passenger van is one of the most unsafe vehicles on the road and suffers from multiple design defects.
