The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Ford Motor Co. must face product-liability claims stemming from serious auto accidents in Montana and Minnesota, a setback for corporations seeking to limit their exposure to lawsuits in state courts, the Wall Street Journal reported. The court, in an opinion by Justice Elena Kagan, ruled unanimously that Montana’s and Minnesota’s jurisdiction over Ford was appropriate because the auto maker “has a veritable truckload” of business contacts with both states, including advertising, selling and servicing the vehicles that the lawsuits claimed were defective. Ford argued that jurisdiction was improper because the two specific vehicles involved in the crashes — a 1996 Explorer in one case and a 1994 Crown Victoria in the other — weren’t originally sold or built by Ford in Montana and Minnesota. The Supreme Court said that didn’t matter. When a company like Ford serves a market for a product in a state and that product causes injury in the state to one of its residents, the state’s courts may entertain the resulting suit,” Justice Kagan wrote. The decision affirmed rulings by the high courts of both states.
