Ford Must Pay Truck Cost, Penalty, Punitive Damages Over Engine

A nearly $230,000 verdict against Ford Motor Co. in a lawsuit over an allegedly defective pickup truck engine, including both a civil penalty and punitive damages, is proper because the two forms of punishment were for different conduct, a California appeals court ruled.

“Ford simply cannot escape liability for both awards by virtue of the fact that it engaged in a pattern or practice of deceitful misconduct throughout the course of the discrete events and conduct involved here,” Justice William J. Murray said Tuesday for the California Court of Appeal, Third District.

Shelby Anderson alleged that as an “outdoors kind ...