Ford Sheds Fatality Case, With Implications for Automakers

Automakers need not face local juries in injury and death suits when the car at issue was sold in another state, under the logic of a successful Ford Motor Co. argument at the Eastern District of Missouri.

Ford’s activities in Missouri, including marketing, weren’t sufficiently closely linked to Bryant Johnson’s death to subject it to suit there, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri said Sept. 4. Johnson’s daughter alleges he crashed after his car’s steering wheel came off.

The court is at least the second, since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Super. ...