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Ford asks Supreme Court to review $290 million Bronco verdict

WASHINGTON January 22, 2003; Joyzelle davis writing for Bloomberg reports that Ford Motor Co. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a $290 million punitive damage verdict in a Bronco sport-utility vehicle rollover case, calling the California jury award "grossly excessive."

The award against the world's second-largest automaker is considered the largest punitive damage jury award ever approved by an appeals court. The California Supreme Court last year let the verdict stand.

Ford's appeal rests in part on a 1996 Supreme Court decision that stuck down a $2 million award for a car paint flaw as unconstitutionally excessive. The $290 million punitive damage award to the family of Ramon and Salustia Romo is 63 times the compensatory award of $5 million.

"The court of appeal's ruling defies the constitutional limitations on punitive damages that this court has repeatedly recognized," lawyers for Ford wrote in their petition for review.

A call to Laurence Drivon, who represented the Romo family, wasn't immediately returned.

Ramon and Salustia Romo, and their 16-year-old son, Ramiro, were killed when their 1978 Ford Bronco rolled over several times on a Modesto freeway in California's Central Valley. The couple's surviving three children claim Ford sold the Bronco knowing its removable fiberglass roof wouldn't hold up in a rollover.

The damage award is the second largest in a U.S. auto safety case. In July 1999, a Los Angeles jury ordered General Motors Corp. to pay $4.9 billion to six people badly burned when the gas tank on their 1979 Chevrolet Malibu exploded. A judge later cut the award to $1.2 billion.

Shares of the Dearborn, Michigan-based company fell 2 cents to close at $10.14 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.