Court: Ford can be sued in states where accidents occurred

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday made it easier for consumers injured by products to sue their manufacturers, unanimously ruling that courts have jurisdiction over lawsuits filed in the consumers’ home states notwithstanding that the products were made and sold elsewhere so long as the manufacturers did substantial business in the states.

The case arose from two car accidents involving vehicles made by Ford Motor Co. In one, Markkaya Gullett was driving her 1996 Explorer near her Montana home when the tread separated from a tire. The vehicle spun into a ditch and flipped over, and Gullett died at the scene. Her estate sued Ford in state court in Montana.

In the other, Adam Bandemer was a passenger in a 1994 Crown Victoria, on his way to do some ice-fishing in Minnesota, when the driver rear-ended a snowplow. The passenger-side air bag failed, and Bandemer sustained serious brain damage. He sued in state court in Minnesota.

Ford argued that the courts lacked jurisdiction because the company did not have a relevant connection to those states. It had designed the vehicles in Michigan; it had manufactured the Explorer in Kentucky and sold it in Washington state; and it had manufactured the Crown Victoria in Canada and sold it in North Dakota.

The Supreme Court has long said that corporations may be sued for all purposes where they are incorporated or where their headquarters are. And they may be sued in particular cases if the plaintiff ’s claims “arise out of or relate to the defendant’s contacts” with the state.

Ford, which is incorporated in Delaware and based in Michigan, argued that its contacts with Montana and Minnesota were insufficient to confer jurisdiction on their courts.

Justice Elena Kagan, writing for five justices, said Ford’s activities in the states provided ample reasons to let the company be sued in them.

It did not matter, she wrote, that Ford made and sold the particular vehicles in other states.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh joined Kagan’s opinion. Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not participate in the case, which was argued before she joined the court.