Local Law Firms Home > Product Liability News > Ford Facing Product Liability Class Action Lawsuit

Ford Facing Product Liability Class Action Lawsuit Over Unintended Acceleration

A class action product liability lawsuit has been filed against the Ford Motor Co. on behalf of plaintiffs in 14 states. The lawsuit alleges a defect in all Ford vehicles manufactured in between 2002-2010 that were fitted out with an electronic throttle control (ETC) system.

This ETC allegedly caused sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) of vehicles, which the company could have prevented by installing a fail-safe “brake over acceleration” or BOA system. Other vehicle manufacturers using an ETC have been providing this BOA safety feature, but Ford did not do so in North America until 2010.

The lawsuit alleges that Ford knew about the defect and its dangers, but did nothing to rectify the problem or warn consumers about it. The lawsuit, filed in the Huntington Division of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, seeks class action status on behalf of all buyers and lessees who used Ford vehicles manufactured in between 2002-10 with an ETC system.

If granted, this will create a potential pool of class members numbering in the millions. Toyota faced a similar issue in 2009 over unintended acceleration, and recalled millions of vehicles. Ford is refuting all the claims, and says the SUA due to throttle issues only happens in rare cases due to factors such as broken floor mats or other mechanical failures.  
Ford also added that the claims in the lawsuit were “unscientific” and said they had satisfactorily addressed these issues with U.S. regulators.

Plaintiffs cited a 2011 report by the U.S. DOT Inspector General, which showed that there were 374 injuries and deaths in Ford vehicles in between 2003-09 that were caused by ETC issues. They are asking the court to make Ford pay compensatory damages equivalent to the lost value of the vehicles.

This means the difference between the purchase price and the actual market value of the defective vehicles. They also want Ford to fix all the vehicles in question by installing a fail-safe mechanism or paying for it to be fixed.