PRODUCT LIABILITY: FORD PINTO CASE

In a series of civil tort suits filed in the 1970s, the most important of which was Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company, 119 Cal.App.3d 757, 174 Cal.Rptr. 348 (1981), Ford was adjudged liable for compensatory and punitive damages arising out of injuries and fatalities involving Ford Pintos which caught fire after rear-end collisions on the highways. The primary legal issues in those cases, once the placement of the Pinto's fuel tanks above the rear axle's were proven to have been a causal link in the fires, were: (i) Ford's degree of responsibility under a strict liability theory for product defects which created safety hazards but which may not have violated then existing federal safety standards; and (ii) whether and to what extent Ford's knowledge of the safety hazards involved was sufficient to warrant the imposition of punitive damages. In addition, Ford was indicted in September 1978 and tried in an Indiana state court on three felony counts of reckless homicide in connection with the three other Pinto related fatalities but was acquitted on March 13, 1980 by a jury. That case raised a number of novel issues concerning the liability of Ford as a corporation for the criminal consequences

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the charge that we tried to save a few bucks and knowingly made an unsafe car." (Francis Culler, William J. Maakestad & Gray Cavender, Corporate Crime Under Attack The Ford Pinto Case And Beyond 296 (1987)). Perhaps, but Ford and other major automakers disregarded safety in favor of styling and market share for decades and when foreign competition began to undercut them with smaller, more fuel efficient cars, they cut corners in their design of subcompacts in order to meet foreign competition. They fought tooth and nail the introduction of needed federal highway safety standards. They arrogantly equated their own self-interest with high ethical standards and the public good. Ethical Analysis a. Key Ethical Issues are as stated above. b. Evidence. One of the most damning features of the evidence in the case from an ethical standpoint is the absence of facts indicating that the ethical issues associated with the decisions concerning the placement and design of the fuel tank of the Pinto were ever given more than superficial consideration by Ford management. Prior to the freezing of the design, clearly operational, cost and marketing considerations not only dominated but were the only factors taken into account, except for some
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Approximate Word count = 4411
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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