On June 8, 2007, a state court jury in Mingo County, West Virginia, rendered a unanimous verdict for Ford Motor Company in a wrongful death product liability action. The jury found that the 1986 Ford Bronco II was not defective and that Ford was not negligent in the design and manufacture of the Bronco II and its fuel system. Ford was represented at trial by Andrew B. Cooke of Flaherty, Sensabaugh & Bonasso, PLLC and Donald H. Dawson and Kathleen A. Clark of Dawson and Clark.

The case arose from a motor vehicle accident on U.S. Route 52. As the driver of the Bronco II, Eugene Waller failed to maintain control of his vehicle, drove off the road and rolled his vehicle 1 ½ times before coming to rest. During the crash, Mr. Waller was ejected and trapped with his left leg under the rear of the vehicle which came to rest on its roof. A post-collision fire ensued and Mr. Waller died in the fire. The State Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be from thermal burn injury and listed drug intoxication as a contributing circumstance, as he determined that medication intoxication caused of the crash. Mr. Waller had a history of serious back injuries which he treated with prescription medication.

Ford's counsel noted that they sympathized with this unfortunate accident and Plaintiff's loss of her husband, but also maintained that this crash and its result occurred due to driver error and not from any defect in Ford's truck.

Plaintiff, Mr. Waller's widow, contended that the materials selected for the fuel system were defective because they could be breached in a fire, adding gasoline to the fire and causing Mr. Waller's death. Plaintiff also contended that Ford was negligent and should have designed a different fuel system because of stability concerns regarding the Bronco II. Ford offered evidence that Mr. Waller's crash and subsequent death resulted from his intoxication and failure to maintain control of his vehicle, and not from the design of the vehicle. Ford also introduced evidence that neither gasoline nor the fuel system design were responsible for this fire, that the Bronco II fuel system was properly designed consistent with the state of the art, that the Bronco II complied with government safety standards and that Ford designed additional safety features into the fuel system to minimize the risk of post-collision fires.

Following a two week trial, the jury returned a unanimous verdict for Ford on all counts after approximately one hour of deliberations.