Product Liability Cases

Partner James Lowe won a $10.4 million verdict in Palm Beach County, Florida, against Ford Motor Company, for their client who was paralyzed by a defective seat in a Ford Explorer.

On October 30, 2001, the client, age 60, was properly seat belted and operating her 2000 Ford Explorer. While stopped and waiting to turn left into her tennis club, her vehicle was struck from behind by a Toyota Solara, traveling at approximately 60 miles per hour. The teeth on the recliner mechanism gears stripped and sheared off, and the client’s seat collapsed onto the rear seat, allowing her to be thrown out of her seatbelt into the rear seatback where she suffered a severely fractured cervical spine, leaving her a quadriplegic.

The jury found that Ford Motor Company had placed the Explorer on the market with a defect in the seat design which was a legal cause of the Plaintiff’s severe injuries. The unanimous verdict awarded $1 million to her husband for his losses, and $9.4 million to the client.

The jury of five men and one woman deliberated for a total of approximately 11 hours over three days before returning their verdict for the Plaintiffs.

Truck driver suffered severe permanent injuries, including blindness, when a defectively designed hatch lid on a tanker trailer failed to hold when under pressure, causing him to be drenched in hydrochloric acid.

After being severely injured in an accident caused by an intoxicated driver, a young woman made a claim against her insurance agent for failing to obtain complete automobile insurance coverage. After receiving the limits of the driver’s coverage, the passenger received an additional $500,000 from the agent due to the agent’s failure to obtain uninsured motorist coverage.

The client suffered major injuries when, as she was entering her office parking garage, her vehicle suddenly accelerated and struck a concrete wall. Her airbag failed to deploy and her seatbelt failed to lock, allowing her to be thrown violently into the steering wheel and instrument panel. Her injuries restricted her from being able to return to work. The parties reached a confidential settlement.

Wrongful death of an adult driver when his airbag deployed suddenly and without an impact, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle which left the roadway and struck a grove of trees.

Young woman rendered quadriplegic when her passenger automobile rolled over and she was ejected because her seatbelt was attached to her door, which came open during the course of the rollover, taking the seatbelt with it and leaving her unrestrained.

A design defect in the door handles on a commercial truck resulted in the death of a passenger. The manufacturer of refuse trucks designed the passenger door with an unprotected, latch-type handle, allowing for inadvertent opening while the truck is being driven. A passenger was killed when he inadvertently opened the door and was pulled under the tires of the moving vehicle when he reached to close the door.

A teenage girl suffered paralyzing injuries as the result of a defective seatbelt design, which permitted her to be ejected when the vehicle in which she was riding rolled over.

Wrongful death of husband and wife who were killed in a rollover accident when the seatbelt stitching tore loose, resulting in an additional 15 to 20 inches of seatbelt webbing, allowing husband to be ejected from the vehicle while still wearing his seatbelt.