Carmaker wins merger of cases in Texas over faulty switches, but it still has other court fights.

Ford Motor Co. won a legal battle last week to merge 77 lawsuits filed in Texas over a series of fires linked to a faulty cruise control deactivation switch. But the Dearborn automaker still faces many other court fights stemming from a series of engine fires linked to a faulty switch in 10 million vehicles that Ford has recalled in seven campaigns since 1999. Combined, the campaigns represent one of the largest recalls in U.S. history. The $21 Texas Instruments switches were installed in 16 million Ford vehicles over a decade before the automaker stopped using them in 2002. The switches have been linked to nearly 550 vehicle fires and 1,500 complaints. And now Ford faces more than 125 lawsuits around the country.

The switch is used to deactivate a vehicle's cruise control when a driver taps the brake pedal. Most of the suits allege fires began well after the vehicles were turned off. At least four of the 77 Texas lawsuits were set for trial between now and May. But the Texas Supreme Court ruling last week may delay those trials. Mark Chalos, a Nashville, Tenn., lawyer with Lieff Cabraser whose firm represents about 20 of the lawsuit plaintiffs throughout the country, said Ford's position that all of the cases were related was an important admission. "For the first time, Ford has acknowledged that the large number of vehicle fires -- some of which have resulted in fatalities -- are related to the same defect," Chalos said Friday.

In addition to the 77 Texas suits, another 50 lawsuits from around the country have been transferred to U.S. District Court in Detroit since 2005, and about a half-dozen of those have been settled since then. In many cases, insurance companies initially paid for damage to homes in fires that the owners claim were sparked by Ford vehicles, and then the insurers sued Ford to try to recoup their losses. Only a few cases involving the faulty switches have gone to trial, among them one in South Carolina. A jury there in March 2007 awarded a couple $3.5 million, including $3 million in punitive damages over a house fire allegedly set by a 2000 Ford Expedition. That case is under appeal.

Learn more about Ford cruise control switch fires and your legal rights.