WASHINGTON — Moving again to rein in large verdicts that punish companies, the Supreme Court on Monday set aside a San Diego jury's award of $55 million against Ford Motor Co. for a rollover accident involving its popular Explorer.
In a one-line order, the justices told a California appeals court to reconsider the amount of the punitive verdict. The ruling does not affect the $27.6 million in compensatory damages that were awarded to a 51-year-old mother of two who was paralyzed after her Explorer rolled over in 2002.
Juries may award damages to compensate victims for wrongful injuries, and they can award additional money to punish the offenders. In the 1990s, the Supreme Court concluded that unrestrained punitive verdicts might violate the Constitution; since then, the justices have searched for a way to limit such damages.
In February, the court overturned a $79-million punitive verdict in favor of a deceased smoker from Oregon and ruled that it was unconstitutional to calculate the damages based on the harm suffered by other users of the same product. In that case, Philip Morris vs. Williams, jurors were told that thousands of smokers had been deceived by the advertising of the cigarette industry.
After losing in the California courts, Ford's lawyers appealed to the high court and argued that the jury in San Diego might have inflated its verdict after hearing that hundreds of people had been injured or killed in rollover accidents involving Ford Broncos or Explorers.
"Indeed, this case presents an even more graphic example of improper punishment for alleged third-party harms than Philip Morris," Ford lawyers Theodore J. Boutrous and Theodore B. Olson said in their appeal.
The court took their suggestion and sent the Ford case back to a California court "for further consideration in light of Philip Morris vs. Williams."
Though the action falls short of a reversal, Boutrous said he was pleased.
"This trial was so infected with improper and irrelevant evidence about persons other than the plaintiffs, and California's standards for imposing punishment are so vague and inscrutable, we believe the Supreme Court's recent decision ... requires a new trial," Boutrous said Monday. "We are hopeful the California courts will agree."
A lawyer for the accident victim said the verdict was based on strong evidence that Ford had sacrificed safety for profit.
