RUTLAND DAILY HERALD                                     

  Jury Gives Paralyzed Man Huge Award

May 2, 1997

By SUSAN SMALLHEER

Southern Vermont Bureau BRATTLEBORO -- 

     A Massachusetts man paralyzed in a car crash in Wilmington seven years ago won a $1.25 million jury award from the Ford Motor Co., after a jury agreed the steering in the 1978 Bronco he was riding in was defective.

     The Windham County jury deliberated for about three hours Thursday before returning the verdict in favor of James Ulm, 52, of Easthampton, Mass., a marketing consultant for AT&T.

     Ulm's attorney said Ford Motor Co. was so intent on trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Chevy Blazer in the 1970s that it rushed a bigger Bronco into production, compressing the usual four-year period of design and research into a year and a half, and simply used the steering from its F-150 pickup trucks without proper testing.

     The $1.25 million award was the second largest award for a personal injury case in the history of the state. Last year, a federal court jury awarded $2.4 million to a Virginia woman who was struck while crossing a street in Manchester. She suffered brain damage.

     Attorney Michael Hanley produced a 1979 memo on Ford stationery that revealed a pattern of problems with the sector component in the steering linkage. The memo revealed that the sector was "not strong enough to support severe 4x4 operation."

     "Sector shaft failures indicate there's not enough strength" the memo said. "Did the loss of steering cause the accident, or did the accident cause the loss of steering," Hanley said, summing up the two sides of the case.

      Hanley said there were 34 known failures of the sector shaft, but he knew of no other lawsuits that arose from the steering design problem.

     Ford used the cross tie system for two years, returning to the older system with its 1980 models and the sector shaft was made thicker.    

     The jury rejected Ford's argument that the driver of the Bronco, Gary Corey of Brattleboro, had been drinking and his poor driving caused the accident, and not the steering problem.

     Ford had even brought two reconstructed Bronco chassises to the Brattleboro courthouse to show the jury the complexities of the two different steering systems used in the Bronco from 1978 - 1979, and then in 1980.

     Ulm, who is confined to a wheelchair and will never walk again, was pleased with the verdict and said he hopes to regain use of his right leg, and eventually get up on crutches.

     "Never give up hope; its not the end of your life that you're in a wheelchair," said Ulm, who said wheelchair-bound people faced a particular challenge living in New England.

     "New England is not really designed for wheelchairs," said Ulm, whose own trial had to be moved from the colonial courthouse in Newfane to the modern courthouse in Brattleboro, which has an elevator.

     "If you feel sorry for yourself, life passes you by," said Ulm, who returned to his job at AT&T only 11 months after the accident and said he fully intended to keep working.

     Of the $1.25 million award in the products liability case, the jury earmarked $260,000.00 for emotional distress and suffering.

     Ulm was the passenger in the Bronco when it suddenly went out of control, struck a tree on Mountain Mills Road, and overturned several times on the night of September 9, 1990. Ulm and some friends had spent the day relaxing at Lake Harriman, and were returning to a friend's camp; Corey received minor injuries; Ulm was paralyzed. Neither man was wearing a seat belt and both had been drinking.

     Some of the first people on the scene said that Corey, still in a daze from the crash and large gash on his head, complained that the steering had suddenly disappeared, causing the Bronco to crash.

     The Ford Motor Co. said that Corey had been drinking prior to the accident and that his own carelessness caused the accident, which in turn snapped the sector shaft.

     The broken shaft was discovered immediately after the crash, as one of the first persons on the scene was a mechanical engineer who recognized the broken shaft since the Bronco was up on its side.

     Ulm was praised by Hanley in his closing arguments Thursday morning as an extraordinary individual who coped and triumphed over horrible injury and constant pain. Ulm hasn't slept a straight eight hours in the last seven years because of the pain, Hanley said.

     "He deserves every penny," said one of his attorneys, Potter Stewart of Brattleboro, after the verdict.

      Hanley, a partner in the law firm of Plante, Hanley and Brannen, said representing Ulm was "one of the proudest experiences of my life."

     Ulm's longtime girlfriend, Terry Boucher, hugged the lawyers and Ulm after the verdict was read by Windham County Clerk Lawrence Robinson. The couple regularly spend their weekends in Vermont.

     Kurt Gerstner, of Campbell, Campbell and Edwards of Boston, one of Ford Motor Co.'s lawyers, said that they would talk with their client and discuss an appeal. Any appeal must be filed within 30 days.

     James Campbell, representing the Ford Motor Co., maintained that Corey's negligent driving caused the accident and that the sector shaft was broken from the impact with the tree and the rollover.

     Anderson said that Corey had been charged with drunken driving, but the charges were dismissed because the blood alcohol results were faulty.