A Lamar County woman who said a transmission defect in her Ford Explorer caused an accident that led to her paralysis was awarded $40 million in damages by a DeKalb County jury late Wednesday.
The jury's award to Jessica Mundy included $30 million in punitive damages, $9 million in compensatory damages to her and $1 million to her husband.
Following the verdict, defendants Ford Motor Co. and the Legacy Ford dealership in McDonough, where Mundy purchased the 2004 Explorer that ran her over, reached a negotiated settlement with the plaintiff. Terms of that settlement were not disclosed, Mundy's Savannah lawyer, Jeff Harris, said Thursday.
The verdict in the nearly two-week trial comes as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into consumer complaints that some Ford Explorers and some of the automaker's Mercury Mountaineers manufactured in model years 2002 through 2005 unexpectedly shift from out of park into gear.
Mundy, who was 23 at the time of the November 2005 accident, claimed said she got out of the Explorer to mail a package and the vehicle ran over her, fracturing her spine.
Ford officials would not comment on the settlement but issued a statement contending Mundy's operation of the vehicle led to the accident, not the Explorer's transmission. The jury disagreed.
"It tells me that 12 people who don't know me, believe that I'm telling the truth," Mundy, now 26, said. Trained as an accountant and a former state employee, Mundy said she has been unable to work since the accident.
"I'm just going to try and move on with my life," she said. "This doesn't change anything that's happened, but I do have some sense of vindication knowing that there was something wrong with the car, and it gives me peace of mind knowing that that was made clear."
