Settlement Gives Family $14.9 Million
A Newport Beach couple who were severely injured in the rollover of their Ford Explorer concluded a $14.9-million settlement Tuesday as the damages phase of their trial was about to start.
A superior court jury in Barstow ruled last week that the family’s 1994 Explorer was defectively designed, the first time a jury anywhere had found the SUV had a design defect due to its risk of rolling over. However, the jury also absolved Ford of responsibility for the wreck, diluting the significance of the defect finding.
Under the settlement reached Tuesday, plaintiffs Agop and Catherine Gozukara will get $9.4 million from Joe McPherson Ford of Tustin, which sold the used Explorer and, according to evidence in the case, failed to make proper repairs. Late last year, the Gozukaras reached a $5.5-million settlement with the California Department of Transportation and a highway construction firm, said Garo Mardirossian, a lawyer for the family.
Settlement terms often are kept secret, but Mardirossian said Tuesday that he and his clients had refused a confidentiality agreement. “We want everyone that’s been injured in a Ford Explorer to know that these vehicles have a dangerous propensity to roll over under foreseeable and reasonable circumstances,” he said.
But Ford declared victory. The jury “totally exonerated Ford for the rollover accident and the ensuing injuries,” said William J. Conroy, Ford’s lead attorney in the case. “That’s the bottom line on where we are with this.”
The Gozukaras were driving through Barstow with their two sons and a nephew on their way to Las Vegas in May 1997 when the Explorer began to shake and pulled to the left, hitting a concave concrete barrier, known as a “K wall.” After running part of the way up the barrier, the Explorer flipped over and rolled several times.
The Gozukaras were thrown from the vehicle, along with two of the children. The children were not badly hurt, but Catherine Gozukara, then 35, broke her back and became a paraplegic. Pregnant at the time, she also lost her baby.
Agop Gozukara, the driver, suffered severe leg fractures and still has trouble walking.
According to evidence in the case, the Gozukaras had purchased the Explorer with 48,000 miles on it three months before the wreck. They repeatedly brought it back to the dealer because of a vibration problem, which they said was never properly fixed.
They also sued Caltrans and one of its contractors over design of the stretch of highway and for placing the concrete barrier too near to traffic lanes.
Although the jury last Thursday found the Explorer was defectively designed, to hold Ford liable for the injuries the panel would have had to decide that the defect caused the injuries. Instead, the jury found, any vehicle could flip if it ran up a K wall. And, according to the verdict, McPherson’s negligence is what caused that to happen. A lawyer for the dealership did not return phone calls.
Craig McLellan, a San Diego lawyer, said the verdict still may influence Ford’s defense strategy. He pointed out that the defect finding came even though certain facts in the case were highly favorable to Ford, including that the Gozukaras weren’t wearing seat belts.
“It doesn’t mean that a jury in Omaha is going to know about it [the defect finding],” said McLellan. But “I think it’s got to be a concern to Ford.”
Last Friday, McLellan reached an undisclosed settlement of his own Explorer rollover case after three weeks of trial. The case was brought by the family of Felicia Lajeunesse, who became a paraplegic in a rollover wreck in December 1999. McLellan said his negotiations with Ford were underway when the Barstow verdict came in, and that Ford then agreed to meet his terms.
