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$731,000 Recovery Verdict in Dauphin County
Case Summary:
Our client, a long-time employee, had just finished greasing an offset printing press. As he stood up from his work, he slipped and his left, non-dominant hand was pulled into an in-running nip-point which lacked guards. A co-worker testified there had never been a nip guard on this machine and that the assembly guides provided by the manufacturer did not include drawings of the nip guards.
Galfand Berger attorney, Richard M. Jurewicz, Esquire handled this matter. Rick asserted a claim of products liability based on negligence, strict liability, and failure to warn and made a statement that photographs of the machine showed a complete lack of nip-point guards and no interlock system to shut off the machine when guards were lifted for access. The manufacturer implied that this was because the photographs were taken while the machine was in the process of being built and did not show the machine after it was fully installed.
As a result of the incident, our client sustained a crush injury to his left hand. This included the degloving of his index, middle, and ring fingers and fractures to the proximal phalanxes of the ring and middle fingers. He also underwent numerous surgeries including a percutaneous pin fixation of his ring finger. Our client was unable to return to work for one month following the injury and an additional five months after his final surgery to remove the pins that had been set in place.
These injuries caused functional impairments of the hand, including weakness and loss of dexterity.
The Outcome:
After a three-day trial, the jury gave a verdict in favor of our client for $731,817.00. When asked to comment on the case, Rick stated, “The question was what was a notoriously conservative jury going to do with a fellow that returned back to work with no lost future earnings, but still had a functionally impaired non-dominant hand. My efforts were to try and develop that aspect of the trial and the get the jury to understand just how important his hands were to his livelihood.”
For more information on this case, please contact Rick at 800-222-8792 or by email: [email protected].