SUV Rollover Case Nets $13.8 Million

Staten Island, NYAn allegedly defective Ford Explorer SUV in which two people lost their lives has been at the root of litigation since 2000, when the accident happened. Eight years after that fateful day in upstate New York, a judge awarded $8.6 million to previously-denied plaintiffs—but not before a jury did little to help the victims of what turned out to be a horrendous crash in an allegedly defective vehicle.

It was on July 1st, 2000 when the Motelson family, on their way home to Staten Island from a Boy Scout event in Narrowsburg, was devastated after their 1998 Ford Explorer went out of control and rolled four times on Route 17, in upstate Goshen.

Steven Motelson, 60 years of age and a respected Scout leader, was killed in the wreck, as was a nine-year-old grandson. Another grandson survived, as did Stephen's son Gary and a 21-year-old passenger.

Ford contended that the driver allowed the vehicle to drift off the road, after which the Explorer rolled when the driver overcompensated. However, the family contends that the vehicle accelerated suddenly and without warning, and also that the brakes had failed.

The family also claimed that a defectively designed roof support in the two-years-new Ford Explorer failed and the roof above the driver shredded in the first of nearly four rolls. The driver's head was subsequently exposed, leaving the seat belted driver especially prone to injury.

The jury, this past March, agreed with that assessment and found for the plaintiff, awarding $6.5 million to Stephen Motelson's widow, and estate. However, the jury determined that Ford was not liable for the death of Motelson's grandson, nor the injuries suffered by Gary Motelson and his younger boy, aged five. The jury contended that the two boys were not wearing seatbelts—even though there appeared to be evidence to the contrary—and thus, were thrown from the rear seat in the rollover. The 21-year-old passenger sitting in the third seat settled with Ford before the trial began.

Following the trial, both the plaintiffs and defendant moved to set aside the verdict. In his judgment, Justice Joseph J. Maltese ruled that the jury had failed to consider the extreme emotional distress that Gary Motelson and his younger son had suffered in the witnessing of the death of their loved ones. He awarded Gary Motelson $3.2 million, and his younger son $5.4 million for medical and psychiatric care, as well as for past and future pain and suffering.

Jurors had failed in not finding Ford responsible for the younger boy's physical injuries, given that there was a failure to discern a difference between those physical injuries, and the psychological trauma he would have endured in the act of witnessing the deaths of his grandfather and his brother.

The boy was in the so-called 'zone of danger,' suggesting that he, too was threatened with bodily harm created by the defendant's negligence, and thus entitled to compensation. To that end, the judge ruled that it was irrelevant whether or not the boy had been wearing a seatbelt.

Justice Maltese also adjusted downward the award to the elder Motelson's widow, and to his estate, given that in his view the jury had over-estimated Motelson's future earnings.

Still, even in view of the lowering of the award, the total award reached $13.8 million—and it could be more, as Ford could be liable for statutory interest going back to the date of the accident, and the filing of the lawsuit in 2001. At nine percent, it could add millions more to the award.

Ford said it would appeal the ruling.