• 03
  • September
    2010

A lawsuit filed by the family of a minor league baseball player recently settled after a Mississippi jury awarded more than $130 million in damages to the family. The terms and amount of the settlement were confidential and, in effect, ended the case before the jury could consider whether to award punitive damages in addition to the actual damages they had awarded.

The auto accident at issue occurred in March of 2001 when Brian Cole, then a 22-year-old minor league baseball player, was driving home to Mississippi from spring training with the New York Mets in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The accident occurred along Interstate 10 about 45 miles northwest of Tallahassee when Cole's Ford Explorer overturned and rolled, ejecting him from the vehicle.

In their lawsuit, Cole's family alleged that the Ford Explorer was defective and unreasonably dangerous. Their claims centered around contentions that the vehicle was unstable and prone to rollovers and that safety belts did not work properly in the event of a rollover crash.

Ford Motor Company, the defendant in the case, made a statement through a spokesperson saying that the company offered its condolences, but disagreed with the jury's initial verdict. Ford blamed speeding and reckless driving for the accident and had hoped to introduce evidence concerning Brian Cole's driving habits, but that evidence was disallowed during trial.

Cole was pronounced dead shortly after the accident, but his cousin who was a passenger in the Explorer, survived the crash. Ford had alleged that Cole was not wearing his safety belt and, if he had been, he would not have been ejected from the vehicle and would have survived the crash. However, in their verdict, the jury found Brian Cole not at fault and Ford Motor Company 100 percent at fault for the crash.

Related Resources:

Lawyer: Ford, family settle in player crash death (Charlotte Observer)