More lawsuits to follow. How many more judgements can Ford absorb?
Ever since Ford was ordered to pay $1.7 billion in punitive damages back in 2022 over an allegation that the roofs present on 1999-2016 Ford Super Duty models aren’t strong enough to hold up in the event of a rollover crash – a decision that stemmed from a wrongful death lawsuit originally filed in 2014 – the automaker has faced a seemingly endless stream of additional lawsuits pertaining to the same matter. Now, Ford has been dealt a massive financial blow in one of those same lawsuits.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a jury has ruled in favor of the plaintiff in this particular Ford Super Duty roof crush lawsuit, meaning that the automaker now owes the family of a deceased couple a whopping $2.5 billion – the largest such sum in Georgia state history, second only to its previous, aforementioned $1.7 billion dollar verdict. This particular crash occurred back in 2022, when a 2015 Ford Super Duty hit a driveway drainage culvert, went airborne, and rolled over onto its roof, crushing and ki-ling the occupants.
“While our sympathies go out to the Brogdon family, the verdict is impermissibly extreme and not supported by the evidence,” a Ford spokesperson said of the decision. Ford continues to maintain that the roofs on these pickups are not defective – they did meet federal safety standards when those models were produced, but have since been strengthened – and added that it plans to appeal this decision.