WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled against Ford Motor Co in a case in which the second-largest U.S. automaker had sought to bar two state courts from hearing product liability suits involving a pair of serious crashes.
Ford had appealed rulings by the top state courts in Montana and Minnesota that had allowed the litigation to proceed. The crashes occurred in those two states. Ford argued that the state courts should have jurisdiction only if its conduct in those states had given rise to the claims.
The automaker also contended that since it designed the vehicles in Michigan, manufactured them in Kentucky and Canada and originally sold them in other states that Montana and Minnesota courts should not decide the cases.
