Ford faces lengthy lawsuits

-Detroit News

02/26/2008 - Ford Motor Co. won a legal battle last week to merge 77 lawsuits filed in Texas over a series of fires linked to a faulty cruise control deactivation switch.

But the Dearborn automaker still faces many other court fights stemming from a series of engine fires linked to a faulty switch in 10 million vehicles that Ford has recalled in seven campaigns since 1999.

Combined, the campaigns represent one of the largest recalls in U.S. history.

The $21 Texas Instruments switches were installed in 16 million Ford vehicles over a decade before the automaker stopped using them in 2002. The switches have been linked to nearly 550 vehicle fires and 1,500 complaints. And now Ford faces more than 125 lawsuits around the country.

The switch is used to deactivate a vehicle's cruise control when a driver taps the brake pedal. Most of the suits allege fires began well after the vehicles were turned off.

At least four of the 77 Texas lawsuits were set for trial between now and May. But the Texas Supreme Court ruling last week may delay those trials.

Last November Ford asked the court to consolidate the 77 cases so that a single judge can be appointed to oversee pre-trial matters, including the taking of depositions and the turning over of evidence before trial.

The court agreed. Without consolidating the cases, "there would be duplicative discovery as to the design, manufacture, testing, installation, recall and performance of the switches," Justice Douglas Lang wrote.

Mark Chalos, a Nashville, Tenn., lawyer whose firm represents about 20 of the lawsuit plaintiffs throughout the country, said Ford's position that all of the cases were related was an important admission.

"For the first time, Ford has acknowledged that the large number of vehicle fires -- some of which have resulted in fatalities -- are related to the same defect," Chalos said Friday.

In addition to the 77 Texas suits, another 50 lawsuits from around the country have been transferred to U.S. District Court in Detroit since 2005, and about a half-dozen of those have been settled since then.

In many cases, insurance companies initially paid for damage to homes in fires that the owners claim were sparked by Ford vehicles, and then the insurers sued Ford to try to recoup their losses.

Only a few cases involving the faulty switches have gone to trial, among them one in South Carolina. A jury there in March 2007 awarded a couple $3.5 million, including $3 million in punitive damages over a house fire allegedly set by a 2000 Ford Expedition. That case is under appeal.

1 lawsuit involves death

In March 2007, The Detroit News first reported on a death linked by government investigators to the Ford switch. The case involved Al Gavegan Jr., a 76-year-old who died Aug. 14 in a blaze that started when a late-night fire spread from his 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis parked in his attached garage in San Antonio, investigators found. A police report listed the fire's probable cause as "an electrical malfunction in the engine compartment of the vehicle."

In 1999, Ford recalled the 1992 and 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis models to replace the switch, but not the1994 model that Gavegan drove. At the time, Ford said a specific batch of switches were to blame. Then in August 2007, Ford expanded the recall to include 1994 Mercury Marquis models.

The Gavegan suit is set for trial in November. Chalos, the attorney, plans to ask the judge overseeing the Texas cases to separate his case, since it involves a death.

Ford spokeswoman Kristin Kinley said the company's investigation was "inconclusive" as to whether the Gavegan house fire was caused by the vehicle.

She cautioned that even though the company faces more than 125 suits, "a lot of them will not end up being legitimate" because the fires weren't linked to the vehicles.

Ford recalls a recall

Earlier this month, Ford found itself in the position of recalling the recall.

On Feb. 1, Ford issued a recall for 225,000 vehicles because of defective wiring harnesses that were used in the first fix. More than 200,000 of the vehicles recalled were vans and trucks for which Ford still does not have the replacement part.

Letters to those owners went out starting last week, notifying them that the replacement part won't be ready until June, spokesman Wes Sherwood said.

Sherwood noted that any owner of a recalled truck or van can take a vehicle into a dealership for an interim fix -- the dealer will deactivate the cruise control. When the parts are ready, an owner can return to the dealership to get the fix installed and the cruise control reactivated.

"There is a solution to eliminate the risk for fire for everyone right now," Sherwood said.

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