Blue Oval Says $2.5B Ford Super Duty Roof Crush Verdict Is Tainted

Back in August 2022, Ford was ordered to pay $1.7 billion in punitive damages over an allegation that the roofs used on 1999-2016 Ford Super Duty models aren’t strong enough to hold up in the event of a rollover crash – a sum that later ballooned to $2.5 billion. That decision stemmed from a wrongful death lawsuit originally filed in 2014, and since then, the automaker has faced a seemingly endless stream of additional lawsuits pertaining to the same matter. Back in March, FoMoCo asked a court to dismiss one of those Ford Super Duty roof collapse lawsuits, and now, it’s claiming that the verdict itself is tainted.

According to Car Complaints, Ford is still seeking a new trial in the lawsuit James Edward (Dusty) Brogdon, Jr., v. Ford Motor Company, which was originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia (Columbus Division), but now, it’s claiming to have new evidence in the case. The automaker claims that it has evidence of problems with the jurors in the case, and adds that such issues warrant a new wrongful death lawsuit trial. Ford alleges that it has tape recordings of jurors involved with the $2.5 billion dollar verdict, which indicate that the previous $1.7 billion verdict may have played a role in deliberations.

On the flip side, plaintiffs in the case argue that Ford should have submitted the tape recordings when it filed for a new trail, and claim that what the automaker is attempting to do now breaks the rules. “But even if Ford had timely provided these supposed recordings to the Court with its motion or even with its reply brief, the recordings would have been irrelevant,” lawyers argued. “A recording [of a juror] does not have the force of a sworn testimony or a sworn testimony. A recording is just hearsay.”

This lawsuit – and several others filed in the months since – alleges that 1999-2016 Ford Super Duty pickups are all impacted by this issue, resulting in multiple other deaths in at least 80 similar rollover crashes. However, Ford has long argued that these roofs met all government safety standards at the time, though those standards were updated in 2012 and The Blue Oval wasn’t required to adhere to them until 2017.