MLB Prospect Brian Cole: Ford Lawsuit, $131M Verdict, and Settlement

The Brian Cole Ford lawsuit was a wrongful death case brought by the family of a New York Mets minor league prospect who was killed in a 2001 Ford Explorer rollover near the Florida-Georgia border. After two mistrials, a Mississippi jury in September 2010 awarded the Cole family $131 million in compensatory damages, and Ford Motor Company settled for a confidential amount before the trial could move to a punitive damages phase.

The Crash That Killed Brian Cole

On March 31, 2001, Brian Cole was driving a 2001 Ford Explorer two-door SUV home to Mississippi after spring training. According to the lawsuit, another vehicle entered his lane, Cole swerved, and the Explorer left the road and rolled over multiple times. Cole was ejected, thrown 78 feet according to trial testimony, and died hours later at a Florida hospital. He was 22.¹ A passenger who was wearing a seatbelt survived.²

At the time of his death, Cole was coming off a season in which he batted .301 with 19 home runs and 69 stolen bases across the Mets’ High-A and Double-A affiliates, earning the organization’s Minor League Player of the Year award. Former Mets general manager Jim Duquette later said Cole was “a player we were going to build around as an organization” alongside Jose Reyes and David Wright.³ That projection mattered later, because it shaped what the jury would award for lost earnings.

What the Family Alleged

The Coles filed suit in Jasper County Circuit Court in Mississippi, naming Ford and the dealership Watson Quality Ford as defendants. Gregory Cole, Brian’s father, served as the named plaintiff and administrator of the estate. The family was represented by Arkansas attorney Tab Turner, who had built a practice around Ford and Bridgestone-Firestone product-liability cases.⁴

Two theories drove the case. The first was that the Ford Explorer was unstable and prone to rolling over. The second, which became the heart of the trial, was that the Explorer’s seatbelt was defectively designed: engineered to lock during a frontal collision but capable of going slack and releasing during the tumbling forces of a rollover.¹

The plaintiffs put internal documents in front of the jury showing that TRW, the seatbelt manufacturer, had warned Ford five years before Cole’s crash that “conventional” seatbelts could “release…during rollovers.” TRW had also told Ford it offered a better design that “remains locked with belt tension regardless of motion.” Engineers used illustrations to argue that Cole’s belt released on the first roll, and jurors saw a coroner’s photo of heavy bruising on Cole’s shoulder, which the family said proved the belt had initially engaged before slipping.¹

How Ford Defended the Case

Ford’s position was that Cole was not wearing his seatbelt. The company’s attorneys argued he was driving over 80 miles per hour, drifted off the pavement, and turned the wheel 295 degrees, causing the rollover.⁴ The plaintiffs countered that the Explorer was closer to 45 miles per hour and that swerving was a reasonable response to another car crossing into his lane.⁵ Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said the company would have prevailed had the judge not excluded certain evidence.⁶

Two Mistrials Before a Verdict

The case took nearly a decade to reach a jury that could agree. A 2004 trial before Judge Robert Evans ended in a hung jury. A second trial before Judge Billy Joe Landrum in January 2010 also produced a mistrial. Because the Jasper County courthouse in Paulding could not handle the technical presentations, parts of the proceedings moved to Laurel in Jones County.⁷

The $131 Million Verdict

The third trial, again before Judge Landrum, went to verdict on September 2, 2010. A jury voted 9-3 for the Cole family and awarded $131 million in compensatory damages:⁸

$56 million in lost wages
$38 million to Cole’s parents and four siblings for loss of love and affection
$50 million for the pain Cole suffered before his death

A separate $1.5 million was awarded to Ryan Cole, a cousin injured in the same crash.⁹

The lost-wages figure grew out of expert testimony comparing Cole’s minor league numbers to those of established major leaguers, including Kirby Puckett, Torii Hunter, and Albert Pujols. Duquette testified that the Mets had expected Cole in the majors by 2002 and had planned to build the franchise around him.¹⁰ Teammate Heath Bell had said Cole would have had a “$100 million dollar major-league career.”³

Ford’s Confidential Settlement

Before the trial could move to a second phase on punitive damages, Ford settled for a confidential sum. Ford admitted no wrongdoing.² Defense attorney Tom Tullos confirmed the settlement was reached specifically to avoid the punitive phase.⁹

In December 2012, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled on Ford’s push to keep the settlement number secret. The court held that the fee-dispute proceedings had to remain open to the public but that the settlement agreement and its dollar amount had to be sealed, reversing the lower court on that point.¹¹

The Attorney Fee Fight

The settlement did not close the file. The estate’s lawyers turned on each other over how to split the fee. Wayne Ferrell Jr. sued in Jasper County Chancery Court to enforce a 2006 fee-sharing agreement with Tab Turner, and Chancery Judge David Clark ordered that no settlement money leave the account without court approval while the dispute played out.¹² The disputes involved expenses each attorney had fronted and whether the contingency fee was 40% or 50% of the recovery.¹¹ A related federal case, Ferrell et al v. Turner et al, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi over $540,000 held in a trust account.¹³ The estate itself was not formally closed until April 2016.¹⁴

1
CBS News. Family Blames Seatbelt in Ball Player’s Death
2
NBC Sports. Brian Cole’s Family Awarded $131 Million in Lawsuit
3
Mets Minors. Brian Cole: What Could Have Been
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Fox Sports. Report: $131M Judgment in Prospect’s Death
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NY Daily News. Tragedy Haunts New York Mets in Suit Over Prospect Brian Cole’s Death
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Reuters. Jury Hits Ford Motor Co. With $131 Million Verdict
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Jury Verdicts. Mississippi Jury Verdict Reporter
8
Palm Beach Post. Ford Settles After Family Top Verdict
9
WDAM. Ford Motor Company Settles Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit in Mississippi
10
Baseball Prospectus. Brian Cole: The Best That Never Was
11
Findlaw. In Re: Estate of Brian K. Cole
12
AL.com. Fee Dispute Delays Payments to Brian Cole Family
13
Justia. Ferrell et al v. Turner et al
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Mississippi Courts. In the Matter of the Estate of Brian K. Cole, No. 2017-CA-00774-SCT