This is a products liability action concerning a 1998 Ford Expedition owned by Plaintiff, Lorelle Thompson. On December 27, 2016, Plaintiff was driving the vehicle in her neighborhood and stopped near her mailbox to check her mail. Upon exiting the vehicle, Plaintiff fell to the ground. While Plaintiff was on the ground, the vehicle rolled backward over her left leg.
Ford Motor Company filed a motion to exclude the testimony of Plaintiff’s expert, Richard A. Hille.
Automotive Expert Witness
Richard Allen Hille has been involved in automotive work for virtually all of his adult life beginning with his start in automotive racing in 1968 and continuing through his current racing activities.
He has reconstructed and analyzed over 3000 motor vehicle accidents, including virtually every kind of motor vehicle accident that can occur, impacts from any direction, rollovers, vaults, falls, submersions and more.
Discussion by the Court
Hille’s expert report places significant reliance on the exemplar testing conducted by him. Defendant challenged the reliability of Hille’s testing, methods, and related testimony.
Hille conducted testing on an exemplar Ford Expedition on February 17, 2023. This testing was not well documented or controlled. Hille took just eight photographs and no videos during his testing. Thus, the Court was not able to review any footage of the testing. Moreover, Hille apparently did not create any contemporaneous written record of his testing conditions or results.
Analysis
Additionally, Hille’s testimony revealed that the testing was inexact in several ways.
First, he testified that he moved the exemplar vehicle’s shifter from drive to park “approximately 100” times, that “about half the time” the shift lever failed to reach the park detent and instead ended up in false park, and that on “two occasions” the shift lever fell from false park into powered reverse.
Second, Hille broadly testified “it took seconds” for the shift lever to fall from false park to reverse on those two occasions, but he did not offer an exact time.
Third, Hille testified that he did not measure the force with which he moved the shifter from drive to park, and that he deliberately perched the shifter into false park “a couple of times.”
Fourth, although the testing conditions varied throughout the day, there is no indication that these variations were documented or accounted for. Specifically, the exemplar vehicle’s shift cable was initially secured to the shift lever with “gorilla tape” due to a malfunctioning bushing and was later reattached using a newly purchased bushing. Hille testified that “75, 80 percent” of the testing was done with the new bushing, and the rest was done with the tape, but he did not specify how many tests were conducted with tape as opposed to the new bushing.
Moreover, Hille did not identify which configuration—the tape or the new bushing—was in use when the shifter moved from false park to powered reverse.
The Court noted that Hille’s lack of documentation essentially requires the Court to “just believe him” in order to admit his opinions.
Held
The Court granted Ford Motor Company’s motion to exclude the testimony of Richard Hille pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
Key Takeaway
While an expert need not adhere to any one documentation protocol, the near-total absence of records here, makes meaningful review of Hille’s methodology impossible.
Case Details:
| Case Caption: | Thompson V. Ford Motor Company |
| Docket Number: | 1:22cv541 |
| Court Name: | United States District Court, Colorado |
| Order Date: | March 24, 2026 |
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