Paralyzed Passenger's Verdict Against Ford Survives Appeal
After trial: Ford appealed the judgment to the Vermont Supreme Court, which affirmed it in all respects in an opinion filed January 7, 2000, reported at 170 Vt. 281. The court upheld both the admission of other Ford sector-shaft failures and the trial court's award of prejudgment interest on a general verdict. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Massachusetts, which had covered Ulm's medical care, intervened claiming subrogation rights in the suit and lost: the court held its policy created only a right to reimbursement after a recovery, so no part of the judgment is a subrogation recovery. Whether Ford paid the judgment is not addressed in the available record.
Won by Plante & Hanley, P.C..
On September 9, 1990, James Ulm was riding as a passenger in a 1978 Ford Bronco on a dirt road above Wilmington, Vermont, when the driver lost steering control and the Bronco rolled, breaking Ulm's back and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Ulm sued Ford Motor Company, arguing the Bronco's steering system was defectively designed, and a Windham Superior Court jury returned a $1,250,000 verdict in his favor. After the trial court credited pretrial settlements and added prejudgment interest, the final judgment rose to $1,290,460.52. Ford appealed, and the Vermont Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in full, also rejecting a subrogation claim brought by Ulm's health plan.
What happened
On September 9, 1990, James Ulm spent the day boating on the Harriman Reservoir near Wilmington, Vermont. Riding home afterward as a passenger in a friend's 1978 Ford Bronco, he was on a dirt road at roughly 20 to 25 miles per hour when the driver approached a curve and lost steering control. The Bronco left the road, climbed an embankment, struck a tree and rolled onto its passenger side.
Ulm broke his back in the crash. The injury damaged his spinal cord and left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Ulm sued Ford Motor Company, arguing the Bronco's steering system was defectively designed and that a failure in the sector shaft caused the driver to lose control. At trial in Windham Superior Court, his lawyers introduced evidence of other sector-shaft failures in similar Ford vehicles. Ford objected to that evidence as unfairly prejudicial, but the trial court allowed it.
The court also excluded evidence Ford wanted to offer that Ulm had not been wearing a seatbelt. Vermont's safety belt statute bars that evidence in a civil case whatever the legal theory behind it, so the jury never heard the argument and no part of the verdict was discounted for it.
The jury sided with Ulm and awarded $1,250,000, including $260,000 for emotional distress. After the verdict, the trial court factored in credits for pretrial settlements Ulm had already reached with other parties and added $150,290 in prejudgment interest. The final judgment came to $1,290,460.52.
Ford appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court, challenging both the admission of the other sector-shaft failures and the award of prejudgment interest on a general verdict. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Massachusetts, which had covered Ulm's medical care, separately intervened in the case seeking to recover its costs out of his award. The Supreme Court rejected every challenge Ford raised, upheld the prejudgment interest award, and turned back Kaiser's bid for subrogation rights in the lawsuit, holding that the health plan's policy gave it only a right to reimbursement out of a recovery. The judgment in Ulm's favor stood in full.
James L. Ulm was represented by Michael F. Hanley and Barney L. Bramen of Plante, Hanley & Bramen, P.C. in White River Junction. Ford was defended by attorneys from firms in Vermont, Massachusetts and Florida. The Vermont Supreme Court's opinion, reported at 170 Vt. 281, affirmed the judgment in all respects.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
Related product liability verdicts
Sullivan Papain was among the firms representing New York State against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard, securing a $25 billion recovery through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.
David Casey Jr. of CaseyGerry was appointed by Judge Charles Breyer as the sole San Diego attorney on the 22-member Plaintiffs' Steering Committee overseeing MDL 2672, the consolidated clean-diesel emissions fraud litigation that produced a $14.7 billion settlement against Volkswagen.
C. Steven Yerrid, the youngest of Florida's 11-lawyer 'Dream Team,' added racketeering and conspiracy charges that tripled the damages ceiling, helping the state secure what was then the largest civil settlement in American history against the tobacco industry.
Michael C. Maher's firm, Maher, Gibson & Guiley, P.A., was one of eleven private law firms appointed to the state's Peoples' Trial Advocates in Florida's Medicaid cost-recovery lawsuit against the major cigarette manufacturers, which produced an $11.3 billion settlement, the largest tobacco recovery by a single state in U.S. history at the time.