By MEG KINNARD - Associated Press Writer - Associated Press
Monday, March 15, 2010
South Carolina's highest court has overturned an $18 million verdict in a lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. in a crash that killed one woman and paralyzed another.
Chief Justice Jean Toal wrote in an opinion published Monday that a trial judge was wrong to qualify an expert who testified about cruise control problems in Ford Explorers and shouldn't have allowed testimony about other incidents.
In 2006, a Greenville County jury awarded $15 million to Sonya Watson. Watson was 17 when she was paralyzed in a 1999 crash. Her attorneys had argued that her Explorer "took off" while she was driving down the interstate.
One of Watson's passengers, Patricia Carter, was killed in the crash on Interstate 385 in Laurens County.
The jury also had awarded $3 million to Carter's estate.
