Ford to appeal $1.7bn verdict against it in Georgia truck crash case

Civil suit centering on what was argued to be defective roofs came after couple killed when vehicle rolled over

The American automaker Ford Motor Co has promised to appeal a $1.7bn verdict leveled against it in connection with a pickup truck crash that killed a Georgia couple, a manufacturer representative said Sunday.

Jurors in Gwinnett county, just north-east of Atlanta, returned the verdict late last week in a yearslong civil case centering on what the plaintiffs' lawyers argued were dangerously defective roofs on the Ford pickup involved in the crash and other vehicles like it, lawyer James Butler Jr said Sunday.