The US Supreme Court on Monday tossed out a ruling requiring Ford Motor Co. to pay 55 million dollars in punitive damages to a driver who was paralyzed in a rollover of her sport utility vehicle.
Without issuing an opinion, the justices sent the case back to a California appeals court to recalculate damages under new guidelines on punitive damages.
Benetta Buell-Wilson in January 2002 was seriously injured when her 1997 Ford Explorer flipped over as she tried to skirt an obstacle on the road. The roof of her car caved in and crushed her spine.
A jury first ruled Ford ignored engineers' recommendations on the vehicle's weaknesses, and ordered the carmaker to pay the victim almost 386 million dollars.
In a retrial, another jury that similarly held Ford responsible limited its damages to about 82 million dollars total including 55 million dollars in punitive damages.
The California appeals court will have to set a new sum for any punitive damages separate from the compensatory amount.
Ford and business organizations supporting the company argued that the automaker should not be held liable for punitive damages since it complied with US safety standards did not show negligence normally associated with such awards.
The high court in recent years has issued several ruling limiting punitive damage awards including one suggesting punitive awards are reasonable only if they are in "single-digit" multiples of compensatory damages. In another case, the court said a punitive award cannot be a punishment for harm to others.
