$1,500,000 Product Liability Jury Award Hands Crushed in Record Press
$1,500,000 verdict in Federal Court in New York for a woman whose hand and wrist were crushed in a record press that made vinyl LP records.
This 35-year-old woman used a hydraulic and steam press to make LP records. Her job required her to place a paper label on the bottom plate, cover it with a “coil” of warm, soft vinyl, and place another paper label on top. Air currents sometimes dislodged the top label, so the worker might have to adjust it after the cycle was started.
A single electric eye beam across the opening would stop the press if someone’s hand were in danger as the press was closing. This beam, which consisted of a light source on one side and a receiver on the other, was attached to the machine with simple hose clamps. The clamps frequently loosened and would shift position. They could also be moved to the bottom of the rod they were attached to so they wouldn’t operate.
At the time of the accident, the worker had placed her hand back into the machine to adjust the top label, but the electric beam was at the bottom of the opening, affording her no protection at all. This design was too easy to bypass, which made the machine defective. The plaintiff, the mother of 5 children, lost her hand at the wrist and wore a “claw” prosthesis on her left arm.
NYC Defective Machinery Lawyers With An Edge
If you are injured on the job, get your injury treated for damage right away. You then should file a workers’ compensation claim with your employer. This will ensure you receive compensation for your medical expenses. This can also help compensate you if you cannot work after the accident.
Workers’ compensation is not designed to cover losses such as permanent injuries, pain, suffering, disfigurement, or lost earning capacity. Gurfein Douglas can aid you if you have a severe personal injury and determine if you can file a lawsuit against a third party whose negligence caused your accident and injuries. If you’ve had an injury on the job by a piece of machinery or equipment, a third-party lawsuit against the manufacturer of the defective machinery to receive compensation for injuries, damages, and losses. This was the case in the defective Record Press design. This case was filed in Federal Court since the machine was manufactured in a different state. This claim can be filed in addition to receiving workers’ compensation benefits. Therefore, a third-party injury lawsuit involving negligence requires the worker to prove:
- The third-party owed them a duty of care
- The third-party breached the duty of care by failing to act with reasonable care
- The breach of duty was the direct and proximate cause of the work injuries
- The employee sustained damages because of the breach of duty by the third-party
An Edge In Presenting Evidence For Defective Machinery Lawsuit
Gurfein Douglas uses their background in engineering to prove negligence by understanding the circumstance and providing evidence:
- Manufacturing defect: The equipment that injured you may have been manufactured in a way that varies from its original design and increases the danger to the operator or others.
- Design defect: The machinery may have been designed to make the device intrinsically dangerous.
- Failure to warn: When products pose certain dangers, manufacturers must warn users so they can take the necessary precautions to prevent injury. When they fail to warn about these dangers, manufacturers could be liable for any injuries, damages, and losses caused by defective machinery that has caused severe workplace injury.
Gurfein Douglas will be able to help determine whether you have a third-party lawsuit against the manufacturer of the defective machinery or equipment and represent you in court on a contingency basis.
Richard Gurfein and Preston Douglas Are Lawyers with an Edge
At Gurfein Douglas LLP, you can rely on our scientific and engineering knowledge and years of experience to uncover the story that the untrained eye might miss. Richard Gurfein and Preston Douglas are the Lawyers With An Edge.