Ford Doesn't Have to Pay $27 Million Crash Verdict, Court Rules

By Margaret Cronin Fisk

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, won't have to pay a $27 million jury verdict to the family of a 46-year-old man who was killed when his Ford Escort was rear-ended, Illinois's top court ruled.

The family of James Mikolajczyk said the 1996 Escort's seat back was defective because it collapsed backward in the crash. Mikolajczyk, a physician's assistant at the University of Chicago Hospital, died of head injuries after the February 2000 accident, said family attorney Bruce Pfaff.

A Chicago jury awarded the family $25 million in 2005, finding the seat design defective. The Illinois Supreme Court yesterday threw out the verdict, ruling the trial judge's jury instructions didn't include consideration that the Escort seat design may have prevented more injuries than it caused.

``The jury was specifically instructed to focus its deliberations solely on whether the seat was unsafe when put to a reasonably foreseeable use,'' the court said in ordering a new trial. ``A retrial is required because the jury was inadequately instructed.''

The Mikolajczyk family will ask the court for a rehearing, Pfaff said. The court was ``completely, utterly and totally wrong,'' he said in an interview. No new trial date has been set.

Ford is pleased with the decision, Mark Truby, a spokesman for the Dearborn, Michigan-based company, said in an e-mail. ``We continue to believe that the plaintiff's claims are without merit, and we look forward to presenting our case at the new trial.''

Mikolajczyk was parked at a red light when a drunk driver traveling about 60 miles an hour smashed his Cadillac into the back of the Escort. Ford contended the force of the collision, not the design of the seat, led to Mikolajczyk's death.

The case is Mikolajczyk v. Ford Motor Co., 104983, Supreme Court of the State of Illinois.

To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net.