Motley Rice Secures Settlement Agreement in Strickland V. Ford Motor Company; Case Was Catalyst for Discovery of Defective Door Latch
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina -- Nationally recognized law firm, Motley Rice LLC, today announced that after three weeks of trial, the firm has successfully reached a settlement agreement with Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) in the Zachary Strickland v. Ford Motor Company case.
Filed and tried in Federal Court in Florence, South Carolina, the Strickland case arose out of a May 9, 1997, two-vehicle intersection collision in which Zachary Strickland, driving his 1997 Ford F-150, was ejected from the passenger door of his vehicle after his seatbelt unlatched and the passenger door flew open. The case involved novel issues dealing with the role of accident forces that cause two primary safety features in an automobile, seatbelts and door latches, to fail when subjected to crash forces in an accident. It was not until after the Strickland accident that Ford Motor Company made an internal decision to recall certain of these vehicles which had door latches manufactured with a defective spring. Unfortunately, however, Ford decided to cancel the recall just a few days later.
Due to pretrial rulings in this case, plaintiffs were precluded from producing evidence of this hidden recall. However, attorneys representing the plaintiffs believe it is important for the public to be made aware of the seriousness of these defects in these Ford vehicles which number in excess of four million. Vehicles involved are the F-150 Pick-up, Expedition and Navigator, and other Ford models.
"It is essential that when designing vehicles manufacturers seriously evaluate real-world crashes and take into account accident forces and potential crash conditions, so that occupants are retained in their seats inside the vehicle, instead of designing their vehicles to minimum safety standards to increase their bottom-line profits," said Motley Rice attorney Kevin Dean. "The Strickland case should be a model to all manufacturers to go back to the drawing board in designing all new vehicles as well as fixing those on the road that are defective and unreasonably dangerous."
Motley Rice was assisted on this case by attorney Ed Bell of the Ed Bell Law Firm in Georgetown, South Carolina. For more information about defective door latch litigation, contact Kevin Dean of Motley Rice at 1-800-768-4026 or visit www.defectivedoor.com.
About Motley Rice LLC
Motley Rice LLC is one of the nation's largest plaintiffs' litigation firms. Motley Rice attorneys gained global recognition for their pioneering work on behalf of asbestos victims, the State Attorneys General in their landmark litigation against Big Tobacco, and the 9/11 families in their groundbreaking lawsuit against terrorist financiers. Motley Rice attorneys continue to seek justice in the areas of: catastrophic injury; complex case resolution; consumer and commercial fraud; environmental hazards and contamination; medical negligence and defects; occupational disease and toxic torts; and transportation defects. For more information on Motley Rice LLC call 1-800-768-4026 or visit www.motleyrice.com.
