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from the carconnection.com
Ford Appeals Frontier Justice
If this were a movie script you'd say it was too far-fetched. But down near the Tex-Mex border, Ford Motor Company finds itself appealing a $31 million judgement that has more plot twists than a Grade B pot-boiler.
Tragically, it started five years ago when four Hispanic high-school seniors were celebrating their graduation with a round of parties near Crystal City, Zavala County, Texas, some 50 miles from the Rio Grande and Old Mexico. At high speed, the teenaged driver of an Explorer failed to negotiate a turn in the paved highway, ran off onto an unpaved way, lost control, the vehicle rolled several times and three unbelted teen occupants were ejected, two killed and one injured. Hours after the crash, the driver still had a blood alcohol content of .02.
So Ford and the driver were sued in Crystal City, an agricultural town of 7,000 where 95 percent of the population is Hispanic. On the opening day of the trial before Judge Amado Abascal last month, Corpus Christi lawyer Guy Allison arose in court and announced he was taking over as counsel for the defendant driver, Saul Guerrero Jr. It was news to co-defendant Ford's counsel.
The same day, coincidentally Valentine's Day, the plaintiffs' local lawyer Jesse Gamez sent two dozen long-stemmed red roses to one of the just-impaneled jurors, City Manager Diana Palacios. According to the San Antonio Express-News, "It was something that everyone in the county but the Ford attorneys knew: Juror No. 17 was the main squeeze of one of the plaintiff's lawyers. Like all small town secrets, this one couldn't hold."
So on February 22, in mid-trial, Ford filed motions for a mistrial and asked Judge Abascal to recuse himself from the case, "claiming he also had known of the Gamez-Palacios link." In the testimony that followed, it was revealed that not only had Palacios failed to acknowledge her romantic entanglement during jury selection, but had previously been a client of Gamez in other litigation, had been an aunt by marriage of one of the plaintiffs and indeed had solicited the plaintiffs to sue Ford and Guerrero and hire Gamez as their lawyer.
But wait. There's more. "The judge also was presented with sworn testimony from the driver of the Explorer that Guy Allison did not have authority to represent him," a Ford spokesperson told TCC. "Mr. Allison, a long-time friend of lead plaintiff counsel Mikal Watts, traveled from Corpus Christi in Watts' private jet and informed the court that he had been retained to represent Guerrero. Later Guerrero and his parents testified that they had never retained Allison and that he did not have authority to represent their son." Watts also is from Corpus Christi, where he formerly was a partner in the Perry & Haas law firm, involved in numerous suits against Ford.
Incredibly, Ford's motions were denied, but Juror Palacios was removed.
The next day's Express-News carried a story about the motions and denials.
But a mysterious man went around to all the distribution points in Crystal City, buying up all the papers before anyone could read them. The San Antonio newspaper management 130 miles away quickly got wind of this, replenished the newspapers and ran an editorial the following day denouncing the act as an attempt to keep Crystal Citians from learning of their local conflicts of interest. The miscreant was never identified.
The trial went on, plaintiffs maintaining that Ford was negligent, because if the Explorer had only been equipped with a type of laminated side glass used by less than one percent of the world's vehicles, the ejections and injuries would not have occurred. Ironically, automakers began using tempered side glass in the 1960s because it was stronger and would not break into stabbing shards in the event of a crash. Ford argued the occupants were ejected because they hadn't fastened their safety belts.
Nevertheless, the jury of Crystal City peers "found Ford 90 percent responsible and that it must pay $28 million. Co-defendant Guerrero was 10 percent responsible and should pay the remaining $3 million," the Express-News reported on March 3.
"Ford lawyer Thomas Klein said the company will appeal on at least three grounds. Å’We will argue that the jury was tainted by Diana Palacios, that Guy Allison had no authority to represent Saul Guerrero Jr., and that the plaintiffs did not meet their burden of proving a defect.'" Â*-Mike Davis
If this were a movie script you'd say it was too far-fetched. But down near the Tex-Mex border, Ford Motor Company finds itself appealing a $31 million judgement that has more plot twists than a Grade B pot-boiler.
Tragically, it started five years ago when four Hispanic high-school seniors were celebrating their graduation with a round of parties near Crystal City, Zavala County, Texas, some 50 miles from the Rio Grande and Old Mexico. At high speed, the teenaged driver of an Explorer failed to negotiate a turn in the paved highway, ran off onto an unpaved way, lost control, the vehicle rolled several times and three unbelted teen occupants were ejected, two killed and one injured. Hours after the crash, the driver still had a blood alcohol content of .02.
So Ford and the driver were sued in Crystal City, an agricultural town of 7,000 where 95 percent of the population is Hispanic. On the opening day of the trial before Judge Amado Abascal last month, Corpus Christi lawyer Guy Allison arose in court and announced he was taking over as counsel for the defendant driver, Saul Guerrero Jr. It was news to co-defendant Ford's counsel.
The same day, coincidentally Valentine's Day, the plaintiffs' local lawyer Jesse Gamez sent two dozen long-stemmed red roses to one of the just-impaneled jurors, City Manager Diana Palacios. According to the San Antonio Express-News, "It was something that everyone in the county but the Ford attorneys knew: Juror No. 17 was the main squeeze of one of the plaintiff's lawyers. Like all small town secrets, this one couldn't hold."
So on February 22, in mid-trial, Ford filed motions for a mistrial and asked Judge Abascal to recuse himself from the case, "claiming he also had known of the Gamez-Palacios link." In the testimony that followed, it was revealed that not only had Palacios failed to acknowledge her romantic entanglement during jury selection, but had previously been a client of Gamez in other litigation, had been an aunt by marriage of one of the plaintiffs and indeed had solicited the plaintiffs to sue Ford and Guerrero and hire Gamez as their lawyer.
But wait. There's more. "The judge also was presented with sworn testimony from the driver of the Explorer that Guy Allison did not have authority to represent him," a Ford spokesperson told TCC. "Mr. Allison, a long-time friend of lead plaintiff counsel Mikal Watts, traveled from Corpus Christi in Watts' private jet and informed the court that he had been retained to represent Guerrero. Later Guerrero and his parents testified that they had never retained Allison and that he did not have authority to represent their son." Watts also is from Corpus Christi, where he formerly was a partner in the Perry & Haas law firm, involved in numerous suits against Ford.
Incredibly, Ford's motions were denied, but Juror Palacios was removed.
The next day's Express-News carried a story about the motions and denials.
But a mysterious man went around to all the distribution points in Crystal City, buying up all the papers before anyone could read them. The San Antonio newspaper management 130 miles away quickly got wind of this, replenished the newspapers and ran an editorial the following day denouncing the act as an attempt to keep Crystal Citians from learning of their local conflicts of interest. The miscreant was never identified.
The trial went on, plaintiffs maintaining that Ford was negligent, because if the Explorer had only been equipped with a type of laminated side glass used by less than one percent of the world's vehicles, the ejections and injuries would not have occurred. Ironically, automakers began using tempered side glass in the 1960s because it was stronger and would not break into stabbing shards in the event of a crash. Ford argued the occupants were ejected because they hadn't fastened their safety belts.
Nevertheless, the jury of Crystal City peers "found Ford 90 percent responsible and that it must pay $28 million. Co-defendant Guerrero was 10 percent responsible and should pay the remaining $3 million," the Express-News reported on March 3.
"Ford lawyer Thomas Klein said the company will appeal on at least three grounds. Å’We will argue that the jury was tainted by Diana Palacios, that Guy Allison had no authority to represent Saul Guerrero Jr., and that the plaintiffs did not meet their burden of proving a defect.'" Â*-Mike Davis
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