Law.com, "Florida Jury Awards $6 Million to Man Injured in Ford Van Rollover"

          After a six-week product liability trial, a Broward Circuit Court jury in Florida Wednesday awarded $6 million to a 22-year-old man for injuries he suffered five years ago in the rollover of a 1993 Ford Aerostar van. It was a victory for plaintiff Julian Felipe, who was temporarily paralyzed after the accident. The jury found that Ford Motor Co., the sole defendant in the case, was negligent in putting the vehicle on the market with a defect in the design and manufacture of its roof structure that led to a roof collapse. Ford had eight lawyers in the courtroom, including outside counsel from Carlton Fields. None could be reached for comment. In the rollover, the roof of the van caved in on the side where Felipe was seated, and he suffered a broken neck.
          Ford's attorneys argued unsuccessfully that the automaker should not be held responsible because the vehicle was 9 years old at the time of the accident and had been purchased as a used vehicle by Felipe's mother in 1999. The company also asserted that the van met all the minimum federal motor vehicle safety standards and that the rollover was a freak occurrence.
          Gonzalez countered that Ford knew or should have known that the Aerostar was unstable, had handling problems, and had a high center of gravity that would make it difficult to control during emergency maneuvers. He argued that those defects came into play when the car suffered a tire failure, causing Felipe's mother to lose control of the vehicle and the vehicle to roll. Experts for the plaintiff testified that the roofs in Ford's trucks and vans deformed at speeds as low as 5 miles per hour, crushing the passenger closest to the initial impact. "This is unacceptable and immoral in my opinion," Gonzalez said in a news release after the verdict. "The cost of fixing this problem is $25 per vehicle," he said. "But Ford figures that it is cheaper to litigate than to mitigate, because the percentage of injury isn't large enough in their opinion, so they gamble with people's lives and put them at risk. That's just wrong."