Ford Motor Company, the second-largest U.S. automaker, must defend a lawsuit claiming the company fraudulently induced a family to settle a claim over a death in an Explorer rollover accident, a federal court said.

When a driver lost control of an Explorer after a Firestone Inc. tire broke apart. His family sued Ford and Firestone’s parent, Bridgestone Corp., claiming defects in the vehicle and tire.

In 1999, the family settled with Ford for $500,000 and with Firestone for an undisclosed amount.

In 2001, after reports linked Explorer rollovers to Firestone tire failures, the family filed a new claim. It argued Ford withheld evidence to settle for less than the case was worth. A federal judge in Mississippi dismissed the new suit in 2006. A U.S. appeals court in New Orleans reinstated it July 31, finding the family could sue Ford for deceit.

Ford’s problem with the Explorer definitely isn’t going to end.

Some lawyers may reopen cases already settled, an we will likely continue to see new cases filed against Ford over uncaptured tires that weren’t picked up during multiple recalls.

The Mississippi judge who dismissed the lawsuit concluded that “the plaintiffs were required but had failed to rescind the settlement agreement and return the proceeds they had received under it,” the federal appeals court said. “It is clear from the plaintiffs’ amended complaint in this case that they seek to affirm the settlement agreement and maintain an action in damages for deceit.”

Ford doesn’t expect to appeal the ruling and will likely ask the trial court again to dismiss the case.

The family seekd an additional $4.5 million in actual damages, the value of the case had the family received evidence of alleged design problems that it sought in the original lawsuit.

The reputation of the Explorer, the top-selling sport- utility vehicle at the time, was hurt by a U.S. investigation into at least 271 highway deaths involving tread separations by Firestone tires. Ford and Firestone settled hundreds of lawsuits over rollovers related to tire failures.