Estate Awarded $10m Against Ford For Explorer Rollover

Travel > Suv Accident

July 8, 2005

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The estate of a woman killed in a multiple rollover accident involving a Ford Explorer won over $10 million in a jury verdict in Gregory Scott Duncan, et al. v. Ford Motor Company, et al. (Case # 01-7230-CA, Fla. Cir., Duval Co., 4th Jud.).

In May 2001, Claire Duncan was driving her Ford Explorer on a Florida interstate with her husband, Scott Duncan, in the passenger seat and her sister, Marlyn Somera, in the back seat. Suddenly, a Winnebago veered into her lane and made contact with the vehicle. Duncan hit the center median and rolled the car five to six times over a distance of about 185 feet. The roof was crushed, and Claire Duncan died. Scott Duncan and Somera were able to walk away with minor injuries.

Duncan sued Ford and the dealership from which the car was purchased. He claimed that the roof had a propensity to crush and that it caused his wife's seat belt to spool out, allowing the crushed roof to fracture her skull and kill her.

Ford said the incident was a high-speed crash that resulted in rolling the car five to six times, and that no one could survive that. Further, no car could withstand that amount of stress, and no manufacturer makes a roof strong enough to keep from crushing in an accident like that. Thus, Ford said the roof was not defective.

The jury found that Ford sold the Explorer with a defective roof and that it was the cause of Claire Duncan's death. Ford was found negligent but not the dealership that sold the car. $547,596 was awarded for the net loss of the estate, $13,783 for funeral expenses, $57,698 for past loss of support and services, $1,565,238 for future lost support and services, and $8 million for past and future loss of companionship and protection and mental pain and suffering.

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