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South Carolina high court allows attorney-fraud claim in Ford rollover case.

Publication: Trial
Publication Date: 01-JUL-03 		Format: Online
Delivery: Immediate Online Access

Article Excerpt
In a ruling that could affect numerous closed cases involving rollovers of Ford's popular Bronco II, the South Carolina Supreme Court recently ruled that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that attorneys for the automaker had committed fraud on the court by suborning perjury and concealing documents related to its star witness. (Chewning v. Ford, No. 25627, 2003 WL 1873520 (S.C. Apr. 14, 2003).)

The witness, David Bickerstaff, had originally been identified by plaintiff attorneys in other rollover cases as a former employee of the automaker who had been critical of the Bronco II's stability. Bickerstaff expressed his criticism in a deposition but allegedly changed his testimony once Ford began paying him to testify as a defense expert.

"Bickerstaff had been disclosed to plaintiff attorneys in Texas as a fact witness--someone whose name showed up on Ford engineering documents," said Edgar Heiskell, an attorney in Charlottesville, Virginia, who has litigated numerous...

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