Justices reject damages in SUV rollover lawsuit

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, May 20, 2003 | by Gina Holland, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Ford Motor Co. won a Supreme Court victory Monday in its effort to avoid paying a record $290 million for a sport utility vehicle rollover accident that killed three family members a decade ago.

The justices ordered a California court to consider whether the damage award was out of line. The high court also told Kentucky judges to decide whether Ford owed $18 million to the family of a miner killed when a Ford pickup truck slipped into reverse and crushed him.

The amounts could be reduced under a recent Supreme Court ruling setting limits on punitive damages. The high court did not give a formula for determining what punishment is reasonable but said in April that juries should not consider a company's wealth in making the decision.

That ruling is especially important for large companies like Ford that can face multiple lawsuits over their products.

The court, in an unsigned opinion issued without holding oral arguments, said an appeals court wrongly sided with a senior citizen who paid $134.50 to get back his car, towed in 1998 while he was at a doctor's appointment.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that state law and the Constitution required the city to give Edwin David a speedy hearing. The Supreme Court said that holding the hearing within 30 days was soon enough.

The Supreme Court says it is ready for another separation of church and state case, this one to decide if tax money can be used to pay for a student's religious education.

In a follow-up to last year's landmark ruling upholding school voucher programs, the court agreed Monday to consider whether state constitutional spending restrictions are trumped by a person's freedom to practice religion, which is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.

It sets the stage for an upcoming term heavy in religion issues.

The court also may hear an appeal from the Bush administration over the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance recited by school children. An appeals court ruled that it amounts to unconstitutional government promotion of religion.

At issue in Monday's case is a Washington state scholarship program that helps high-achieving students pay for studies in fields such as business or engineering, but not theology. More than half the states, including Washington, have laws banning state spending for theology classes or constitutional restrictions on spending for religion.

Washington refused to let Joshua Davey participate in the Promise Scholarship program to help pay his tuition at Northwest College, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. The program allows grants to be used at that college and others associated with churches, as long as the student is not studying theology.

Davey, who wanted a grant to study theology, sued and won. Justices will hear an appeal from the state of Washington.

The Supreme Court turned away an appeal over detention of hundreds of U.S. prisoners picked up in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The court did not comment in rejecting an appeal from clergy, lawyers and others who wanted to go to court on behalf of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without charges or access to lawyers.

Lower federal courts had blocked the legal challenge on grounds that the clergy group did not have legal standing.

The clergy group sued President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others last year.

"The United States government violated basic principles of international human rights law in forcibly removing prisoners of war from Afghanistan, transporting them to Guantanamo, and holding them indefinitely in small outdoor cages," the clergy group alleged.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to address the merits of those complaints.