JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Ford Motor Co. owes a Jacksonville man and his children almost $105 million for a car fire that left the man in a coma for months with severe burns and cost him almost all of his fingers, a jury has concluded.
The verdict capped a two-week trial over whether Robert Hetsler’s near-fatal injuries were caused by a Ford manufacturing defect in a barely used Roush Mustang that was consumed by flames in 2017.
The staggering $104.6 million awarded to the family “is consistent with the hardships that they’ve experienced,” said Hetsler attorney Andrew Knopf, who attributed the fire to a quality-control failure by the huge carmaker.
A Ford spokesman said the company “does not believe that the verdict in this case is reflective of the facts and the law as presented in court. Ford stands by the safety and quality of its vehicles, saying, "We will appeal.”
Hetsler had third-degree burns over about 60 percent of his body from a fire that also led to a messy chain of lawsuits by dozens of the businessman's clients — with some lawyers asserting a Ponzi scheme — when they couldn't recover about $6.5 million of investment funds while he was comatose.
Hetsler, who handled clients' real estate investment profits as a "qualified intermediary" to lower their tax obligations, had placed millions of dollars in investments that couldn’t be readily located without him, leading attorneys to say he had defrauded clients. Hetsler and the clients reached a settlement agreement in 2019, although the court dispute wasn’t finally closed until late 2022.
In circumstances that Hetsler could never fully explain because of memory loss that persisted after the coma, his performance-enhanced car exploded in flames in a San Marco parking lot a little after 3 a.m. one night in November 2017.
He peeled off burning clothing as he fled the flames, but bits of his polyester jacket melted into his flesh.
He was conscious and talking when police arrived, telling an officer before being rushed to a hospital that the 2016 Mustang with about 1,000 miles logged “just blew up.”
A state fire investigation never identified a cause.
Knopf told jurors the fire was started by pressurized brake fluid being ejected from defective equipment into a hot engine compartment.
“What caused this fire was a defect in the Mustang,” he argued, pointing to a photo showing intense burn damage on a part of the hood.
“This is precisely where all of the under-the-hood braking components are,” he told jurors, who later heard testimony from experts for both sides of the case. Knopf said Wednesday that Hetsler had been driving on Atlantic Boulevard and apparently turned into the parking lot of a closed construction company after recognizing brake problems.
Hetsler had sued Ford, performance specialist Roush and the dealership where he bought the Mustang in 2020, settling with Roush and the dealer by 2022.
The verdict against Ford allotted just under $3.4 million to pay for medical expenses already incurred and another $12 million for numerous surgeries Hetsler, now 49, is expected to need in coming years.
Another $67 million was awarded for past, present and future pain and suffering, as well as money for his children's loss of his presence in their lives because of his injuries.
