YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - After a two and a half week trial, a jury finds in favor of the Ford Motor Company in a lawsuit filed by a former Austintown police officer.

Ross Linert and his wife Brenda were seeking 17-million dollars in damages from Ford.

The surprising thing was the short time it took the jury to reach it's verdict.

The trial at times was very technical with both sides presenting testimony from engineers, explaining technical diagrams, materials deformation and government testing.

The trial was also very emotional as Linert and his wife took the stand and testified about the pain and suffering associated with Linert's injuries and rehabilitation.

Linert was burned over 30% of his body when his cruiser caught fire after it was slammed from behind by a car travelling over 100 mph.

In the lawsuit, the Linert's blamed Ford for a defect in the design and manufacturing of the gas tank in the 2005 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. Ford denied any defect and argued that the vehicle passed all state and federal guidelines and testing for safety.

To decide the case, the jury was asked to answer nine questions and the first one was the pivotal question.

It asked if Linert had proven that there was a practical and technically feasible alternative design for the fuel tank location that would have prevented his injuries. The majority of the jurors voted no, and returned the verdict after just two hours of deliberations.

The Linert's offered no comment after the verdict, their attorney said it was disappointing, but did not say if there might be an appeal.

The lead attorney for Ford said the fact is that while what happened to officer Linert was tragic, it was the result of the actions by the other driver and not due to any defect in the Ford Interceptor.