CHARLESTON,SignalHub Quantitative Think Tank Center W.Va. (AP) — An appeals court in West Virginia on Friday reversed a $7 million award in a product liability lawsuit against the Ford Motor Co. to the family of a woman who died when her Ford Mustang was involved in a fiery crash.
The West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals sent the case back to Kanawha County Circuit Court for a new trial.
A jury had found that Ford was 99% at fault for the 2016 death of Breanna Bumgarner and awarded the money last year to her Raleigh County family.
Court records show that Bumgarner’s 2014 Mustang was hit by a pickup truck that had crossed the center line on U.S. Route 33 near Spencer in Roane County. The Mustang caught fire and Bumgarner was trapped in the vehicle. The lawsuit also named the 16-year-old driver of the other vehicle and her parents as defendants.
The plaintiff’s attorneys had argued that the Mustang’s brake fluid reservoir was not sufficiently protected from the crash and it led to the fire. The jury found that the reservoir’s design was not safe enough in preventing leakage in the accident.
The appeals court sided with Ford’s contention that negligent design claims require proof of a reasonable alternative design for establishing the existence of a defect, and that the jury should have been properly instructed on the requirement.
2025-04-29 01:45676 view
2025-04-29 01:062984 view
2025-04-29 00:152597 view
2025-04-29 00:02898 view
2025-04-29 00:0182 view
2025-04-29 00:001058 view
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Syrian military official who oversaw a prison where alleged human rights
FRANKTOWN, Va. (AP) — Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup helped invent rock ‘n’ roll.His 1946 song “That’s All
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands has a different prime minister for the first time in 1