teamzr1
Supporting vendor
Ford Motor Co. owes more than $2.5 billion to the family of a couple killed in a 2022 rollover crash in one of the company’s Super Duty trucks, a Georgia federal jury found, marking the largest verdict in Georgia history.
The automaker now holds the dubious honor of having itself on the wrong end of the two largest verdicts in Georgia history, both of which were awarded in recent years.
A jury in Columbus, Georgia, found that Ford was mostly at fault for the deaths of two people after their truck rolled over in an accident that occurred just days after a separate state court jury issued a $1.7 billion verdict against the automaker in a similar suit.
That verdict was the previous record-high award in Georgia.
Herman Mills, 74, and Debra Mills, 64, were driving in Decatur County on Aug. 22, 2022, in their 2015 Ford F-250 Super Duty truck when it rolled over and the roof crushed down on them, according to the suit.
Debra Mills was driving the truck with Herman Mills in the passenger seat when the truck struck a driveway drainage culvert, causing the vehicle to go airborne for about 81 feet before smashing into the ground and flipping over, according to filings in the case.
“It was only a half roll, yet the roof catastrophically collapsed into the passenger compartment,”
James E. Butler, the lead attorney for the Mills family, said in a news release.
Attorneys for the Mills’ children, James “Dusty” Brogdon, Ronald “Rusty” Brogdon and Jason Mills, had argued that the roofs of all 1999-2016 Super Duty trucks were “indisputably weak” compared to their F-150 models and said the roof on the Mills’ other F-250 from 2002 was similar but not the same.
Ford argued that the deformation of the roof in the crash did not cause the couple’s death.
“While our sympathies go out to the Brogdon family, the verdict is impermissibly extreme and not supported by the evidence,” a spokesperson said.
The company noted that juries in other cases found that the roofs of the “Super Duty” trucks were not defective, and said Ford will appeal.
The motor company also argued that Debra Mills suffered a cardiac attack as she was driving the vehicle, which Ford says caused her to crash in the first place.
Butler, the attorney for the family, said that Debra Mills died on the scene but that it took first responders 26 minutes to pry Herman Mills out from under the collapsed roof, and he died in a Florida hospital later.
The jury, in the verdict form, assigned 85% of the fault for the Mills’ death to Ford, with the remaining 15% given to Debra Mills.
“Ford has known for 26 years that people were getting killed and hurt by these weak roofs,” Butler said.
“Ford has constantly refused to admit the danger or warn of the risk.”
The jury rendered the verdict in two phases, one for compensatory damages on Thursday awarding $30.5 million and the other for punitive damages on Friday awarding the other $2.5 billion.
The Mills crash happened just days after a Gwinnett County jury awarded a $1.7 billion verdict against Ford in a wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from a 2014 rollover crash involving another F-250 that killed Voncile and Melvin Hill.
The Hills were driving from their Macon County home to Americus to pick up a tractor part when a tire blew out on a Sumter County highway in 2014 and their 2002 Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup rolled over.
Anyone remember also back in early 1990s as Ford Explorer also had jap tires that would blow,
causing the SUV to flip over and killed lots of their own customers ?
The automaker now holds the dubious honor of having itself on the wrong end of the two largest verdicts in Georgia history, both of which were awarded in recent years.
A jury in Columbus, Georgia, found that Ford was mostly at fault for the deaths of two people after their truck rolled over in an accident that occurred just days after a separate state court jury issued a $1.7 billion verdict against the automaker in a similar suit.
That verdict was the previous record-high award in Georgia.
Herman Mills, 74, and Debra Mills, 64, were driving in Decatur County on Aug. 22, 2022, in their 2015 Ford F-250 Super Duty truck when it rolled over and the roof crushed down on them, according to the suit.
Debra Mills was driving the truck with Herman Mills in the passenger seat when the truck struck a driveway drainage culvert, causing the vehicle to go airborne for about 81 feet before smashing into the ground and flipping over, according to filings in the case.
“It was only a half roll, yet the roof catastrophically collapsed into the passenger compartment,”
James E. Butler, the lead attorney for the Mills family, said in a news release.
Attorneys for the Mills’ children, James “Dusty” Brogdon, Ronald “Rusty” Brogdon and Jason Mills, had argued that the roofs of all 1999-2016 Super Duty trucks were “indisputably weak” compared to their F-150 models and said the roof on the Mills’ other F-250 from 2002 was similar but not the same.
Ford argued that the deformation of the roof in the crash did not cause the couple’s death.
“While our sympathies go out to the Brogdon family, the verdict is impermissibly extreme and not supported by the evidence,” a spokesperson said.
The company noted that juries in other cases found that the roofs of the “Super Duty” trucks were not defective, and said Ford will appeal.
The motor company also argued that Debra Mills suffered a cardiac attack as she was driving the vehicle, which Ford says caused her to crash in the first place.
Butler, the attorney for the family, said that Debra Mills died on the scene but that it took first responders 26 minutes to pry Herman Mills out from under the collapsed roof, and he died in a Florida hospital later.
The jury, in the verdict form, assigned 85% of the fault for the Mills’ death to Ford, with the remaining 15% given to Debra Mills.
“Ford has known for 26 years that people were getting killed and hurt by these weak roofs,” Butler said.
“Ford has constantly refused to admit the danger or warn of the risk.”
The jury rendered the verdict in two phases, one for compensatory damages on Thursday awarding $30.5 million and the other for punitive damages on Friday awarding the other $2.5 billion.
The Mills crash happened just days after a Gwinnett County jury awarded a $1.7 billion verdict against Ford in a wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from a 2014 rollover crash involving another F-250 that killed Voncile and Melvin Hill.
The Hills were driving from their Macon County home to Americus to pick up a tractor part when a tire blew out on a Sumter County highway in 2014 and their 2002 Ford F-250 Super Duty pickup rolled over.
Anyone remember also back in early 1990s as Ford Explorer also had jap tires that would blow,
causing the SUV to flip over and killed lots of their own customers ?
