Texas Jury Finds Ford Explorer Handling Defect in Rollover Death; $7.37 Million Judgment Later Reversed
After trial: The Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas reversed on June 30, 2011, holding the evidence legally insufficient on a safer alternative design, and rendered a take-nothing judgment for Ford, so no part of the judgment stood. The Supreme Court of the United States denied certiorari in 2013.
Won by Loncar Lyon Jenkins.
A Texas county court at law jury found a design defect in the handling of a 1996 Ford Explorer that rolled over after a rear tire lost its tread in July 2003, killing Diane Wiles. The jury put one-third of the responsibility on Ford, one-third on the driver and one-third on Ms. Wiles, and the court entered a judgment of $7,370,197.16 in actual damages. The Dallas Court of Appeals reversed in 2011 for lack of evidence of a safer alternative design.
What happened
On July 12, 2003, the Wiles family was driving home from a vacation in New Mexico. James Wiles was at the wheel of a 1996 Ford Explorer, with his father in the front passenger seat and his wife, Diane, in the back. They had noticed an unusual vibration earlier in the day and stopped at lunch to check the tires, but found nothing wrong.
About an hour later the tread separated from the Explorer's left rear tire. The vehicle swerved left into oncoming traffic, returned to its lane when Wiles steered right, then veered left again. He tried to guide it off the road onto the grass. Instead the Explorer kept turning right and rolled four times before striking a tree. Diane Wiles was killed in the crash.
James Wiles sued as an individual and as representative of his wife's estate, together with the couple's children and other family members. The defendants were Ford Motor Company, Michelin North America (which made the Uniroyal tire) and Procare Automotive Solution, which had passed the Explorer on its state inspection about five weeks earlier. Ted B. Lyon, Jr. and William E. Zook of Ted B. Lyon & Associates, P.C. in Mesquite appeared for the family, along with co-counsel from Austin and Dallas.
The family's theory was not that the tire alone caused the death. Their expert, Dr. David Renfroe, testified that the Explorer's solid rear axle was prone to 'tramp' and 'skate' when a tire delaminated: the wheels bounce and the rear of the vehicle slides back and forth regardless of steering. He pointed to Ford's own documents showing that in Australia and Venezuela, where owners complained about the same handling problem, the company moved stiffer shock absorbers outboard, nearer the wheels, and reported that the change 'will save lives.' Ford never made that change on Explorers sold in the United States, he said, and the stiffer shocks would have cost no more than the standard ones.
The case was tried to a jury in a county court at law, which rejected the claims against the tire maker and the inspection shop. It found a design defect in the handling of the Explorer and found that Ford, James Wiles and Diane Wiles were each one-third responsible for her death. On that verdict the trial court entered judgment for the Wiles family for actual damages of $7,370,197.16, plus interest.
Ford appealed. On June 30, 2011, the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas held that the family had offered no legally sufficient proof of a safer alternative design, which Texas law requires in a design defect case. The court found Renfroe's testimony did not explain how stiffer shocks would have prevented the rollover once the tire went flat and the wheel rim dug into the pavement. It reversed the judgment and rendered a take-nothing judgment for Ford. The court overruled the family's motion for rehearing in November 2011, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied review in February 2013.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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