$73 Million Verdict Against Ford in Fatal Van Rollover Caused by Defective Goodyear Tire

On the morning of April 9, 2004, four members of Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church were traveling on Interstate 5 near Sacramento in a 15-passenger Ford E-350 Econoline van owned by their congregation. The right-rear Goodyear Load Range E tire suffered a sudden tread separation. The driver, William Brownell, 48, tried to stabilize the van by steering toward the median. When he attempted to pull back onto the roadway, the van overturned four times. Brownell and front-seat passenger Tony Mauro, 41, were killed. Passengers Marlene Shirley and Alexander Bessonov survived with serious injuries.

The case went to trial in Sacramento Superior Court in 2011. Christine Spagnoli of Greene Broillet & Wheeler represented the family of William Brownell and injured passenger Alexander Bessonov, pursuing both a design-defect theory against Ford and a failure-to-warn claim. Sacramento attorney Roger Dreyer of Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood represented Tony Mauro's widow, Susan Mauro, and the couple's two sons.

At trial, plaintiffs proved two overlapping failures on Ford's part. First, Ford's own internal testing had shown the E-350 15-passenger van was prone to loss of control during tread-separation events, but the company placed the vehicle on the market without addressing the instability. Second, Goodyear had notified Ford in early 2002 of a voluntary replacement program covering the exact tire model installed on the church van, because the 4-ply construction of those tires had been supplanted by a stronger 6-ply design. Despite possessing a direct system to contact vehicle owners by VIN, Ford took no steps to inform dealerships or customers that these tires were subject to replacement, and the church van left on that April trip still wearing the recalled tires.

On November 10, 2011, a 10-2 jury found Ford negligent and returned a $73 million verdict: $17.5 million to Tony Mauro's family, $5.2 million to Marlene Shirley, and $292,000 to Alexander Bessonov, plus $50 million in punitive damages against Ford. No reduction on appeal has been reported in available coverage.