Personal Injury Trial Report - Product Liability

NATURE OF CASE:

Product liability; Commercial bakery dough-processing machine.

INJURIES ALLEGES:

Amputated distal phalanx of right ring finger, scarring to forearm.

NAME OF CASE:

Withheld.

COURT:

U.S. District Court, Massachusetts.

JUDGE:

Woodlock.

AMOUNT OF AWARD/SETTLEMENT:

$125,000, including $107,000 immediate cash plus $18,000 in Section 36 benefits.

ATTORNEYFOR PLAINTIFF:

Eric J. Parker; PARKER SCHEER

ATTORNEY FOR THE DEFENDANT:

Withheld.

MOST HELPFUL EXPERT:

Bradley Schofield, P.E.

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION:

The plaintiff, a 40-year-old Salvadoran woman, was employed as a bakery worker at a commercial bakery in Chelsea, Massachusetts. At the time of the incident, the plaintiff was one of several operators of a large, commercial bakery dough-processing machine, designed to produce bread products for wholesale distribution.

While in the course of her duties, the plaintiff attempted to remove some dough scraps that had accumulated beside the conveyer belt. With her arm extended, the plaintiff’s cloth glove was suddenly snagged by the protruding teeth of an unguarded, rotating lock-washer. As the lock-washer rotated, it drew the plaintiff’s gloved-hand into the motorized mechanism, severing the distal phalanx of her right ring finger. In addition, the plaintiff suffered a deep laceration of the dorsal aspect of her right forearm.

The plaintiff contented that the defendant, a French corporation, was negligent in failing to guard the rotating lock-washer so as to protect workers from contact with the lock-washer’s rotating teeth. The plaintiff was prepared to prove that as an alternative to a “star” lock-washer—given its name for its star-like protruding teeth—an “internal toothed” lock-washer would have eliminated the hazard without impacting the machine’s functionally. Finally, the plaintiff contended that the defendant’s employee/installer, who had traveled from France to Massachusetts to install the machine, failed to bend the protruding teeth of the star lock-washer, downward, in accordance with the machine’s design specifications, resulting in the hazard.  

The defendant was prepared to offer evidence that the plaintiff knew that it was dangerous to place her hand near any of the machine’s moving parts and that her negligence in doing so was a voluntary and unreasonable intervening act precluding recovery. The defendant further argued that the star lock-washer that injured the plaintiff had originally been installed properly but had been removed by the plaintiff’s employer during routine maintenance and was improperly reinstalled. While the Plaintiff’s employer denied modifying he position of the lock-washer, it did admit to other modifications to the machine.

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