Ford, plaintiff's attorney disagree on Calif. Explorer verdict

BARSTOW, Calif. (Feb. 4)—Ford Motor Co. and a plaintiff's attorney disagreed publicly on the significance of a Barstow Superior Court jury's decision in a product liability case involving a 1994 Ford Explorer. "Our defense presented the fact that this accident was not caused by any defect in the Explorer. The jurors agreed," Ford said in a prepared statement about the case involving a couple severely injured in the 1997 rollover of their vehicle. Although Ford was not found liable in the case, "the jury also found that the I-beam design (of the Explorer) was defective as it rolled off the assembly line," a spokesman for Los Angeles plaintiff's attorney Gero Mardirossian said.