White

I. Background

A. The Defective Product

In 1991, Ford began to produce model year 1992 F-series pickup trucks using a self-adjusting parking brake designed and manufactured in the 1980s by the Orscheln Company. Although conventional brakes employ a cable that becomes WHITE v. FORD MOTOR CO. 10999 loose over time and therefore must be adjusted periodically to maintain tension, Orscheln’s self-adjusting brake kept the cable tight, even as the vehicle aged. The brake used a self- adjusting ratchet wheel and a “pawl,” which is a “hinged or pivoted finger that sticks into a tooth of the ratchet wheel.” White I, 312 F.3d at 1002-03. A driver would engage the brake by depressing the pedal, setting the mechanism in gear until the pawl tooth fit in between two of the ratchet teeth.

By 1990, Ford had preproduction reports of potential prob- lems with the Orscheln brake, and by the time the F-series trucks were in production, the reports had increased. For example, some customers reported that sometimes the parking brake did not engage and instead pressed freely down to the floor, while other customers reported that their trucks rolled despite the parking brake being…