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2005 News Releases
Locke Reynolds Receives Defense Verdict for Ford in Power Window Death Case
On August 5, 2005, an eight-member jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Ford Motor Company in a case involving the death of a three year-old child after she became entrapped in a power window.
ACCIDENT FACTS
Francisco Ayala purchased a new 2001 F-250 two-door truck in November, 2001 from a Ford dealership in Dallas, Texas, which Mr. Ayala used almost exclusively in his landscaping business.
On Sunday, June 6, 2004, Mr. Ayala received a call from a client asking that he perform a "special" landscape job prior to an important meeting the following day. As Ayala left for the job, his children (Yancey and Sergey) indicated a desire to go with him. Ayala relented and took his wife and two young children to the job sight with him.
Ayala left the diesel truck running while he mowed. Mrs. Ayala and Yancey remained seated in the front of the truck with Sergey asleep in the rear. Three year-old Yancey began raising, lowering and playing with the power window switch located on the front passenger-side of the truck. Mrs. Ayala instructed her daughter to stop and testified that her daughter complied. Then, Mrs. Ayala lowered Yancey's passenger-side window half way so that Yancey could look out. Mrs. Ayala became distracted, looking through the driver's side window at birds eating and nesting in nearby bushes, for “about the length of a song.” After her period of distraction, Mrs. Ayala turned back to her right to discover that her daughter had inadvertently rolled the power window up and her neck was caught between the upper edge of the window glass and the top of the vehicle's door frame.
Mrs. Ayala attempted to lower the window by using the switches on the driver's and passenger's sides, but the window would not move because a thermal cut-off switch installed to keep the window regulator from overheating and causing fires had activated. Mrs. Ayala then exited the truck and ran to the passenger's side attempting to forcibly lower the window, but it would not go down. She ran back to the driver's side and this time the button lowered the window and her unconscious daughter fell back into the truck. Resuscitation efforts were undertaken by Mr. and Mrs. Ayala and emergency personnel were summoned. Yancey Ayala was not capable of being revived and was pronounced dead a short while later at the Dallas City Hospital.
PLAINTIFFS' CLAIMS
Plaintiffs alleged that Ford's 2001 F-250, had a defectively designed power window system. Specifically, plaintiffs argued that the installation of rocker switches instead of push/pull switches, made the vehicle defective and unreasonably dangerous because it allowed the vehicle's power windows to be inadvertently actuated by a child (or an adult). Plaintiffs also claimed that the vehicle was defective because it did not possess a lock-out switch that would have allowed Mrs. Ayala to deactivate the passenger side power window switch and prevent Yancey from inadvertently operating the window and becoming entrapped. Finally, the plaintiffs claimed that the lack of an anti-trap or auto-reverse system for the power window made the vehicle defective and unreasonably dangerous because it allowed the window to close on Yancey's throat. At trial, plaintiffs' contended that all three alternative designs were technologically and financially feasible and any or all of the three alternative designs would have prevented Yancey's tragic death. Plaintiffs requested punitive damages based on Ford's alleged malice and "conscious indifference" in not replacing rocker switches with push/pull switches or installing either of the other alternative designs since Ford had notice of other power window entrapment incidents prior to its design and manufacture of the 2001 F-250, and, in fact, used some of these designs in other vehicles it made.
FORD'S DEFENSES
Ford conceded that push/pull switches and power window lock-out switches were feasible alternative designs; however, it countered that the rocker switch was neither defective nor unreasonably dangerous. In fact, Ford's research indicated that rocker switches were preferred by its truck buying and using customers. At trial Ford relied on its compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 118, the standard enacted to prevent inadvertent actuation of power window systems by children. FMVSS 118 requires, among other things, an ignition interlock which prevents the power window system from operating unless the vehicle's key is in the ignition and the key is turned to either the “ON” or “ACCESSORY” position. According to the standard and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the incorporation of the ignition interlock was the main safety feature to prevent against power window entrapments because it required a key in the ignition and therefore presumed the presence of a supervisory adult. And, due to Mrs. Ayala's admitted distraction, she overrode the basic safeguard installed in the system.
Complicating Ford's defense was the fact that FMVSS 118 was amended in November 2004, to prescribe the use of push-pull or recessed switches in all vehicles beginning in Model Year 2009, which Plaintiffs' contended, "outlawed" the rocker switch.
VERDICT
After approximately an hour of deliberation, the East Texas Federal Court jury returned a unanimous defense verdict for Ford Motor Company.
Case name: Ayala v. Ford
Case number: Civil Action 2:04-CV-395
Court: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division
Attorneys for Ayala: Mikal Watts and J. Hunter Craft of Watts Law Firm, Corpus Christi, TX.
Attorneys for Ford: Kevin C. Schiferl and Robert B. Thornburg of Locke Reynolds LLP, Indianapolis, IN, and Ronald D. Wamsted and Michael Eady of Thompson Coe Cousins & Irons, LLP, Austin, TX.
Experts for Ayala: Thomas Flanagan (design issues) and Wayne Ross, M.D., (biomechanic/injury causation).
Experts for Ford Motor Corporation: John Pless, M.D., (medical causation expert).
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Contact:
Locke Reynolds LLP
Indianapolis, Indiana
317-237-3800
Fort Wayne, Indiana
260-497-6000
www.locke.com
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