Defective Products Lawsuit Verdicts & Settlements
1. Forklift Goes in Wrong Direction Resulting in Paraplegia: Our client, a forklift driver in a cold storage plant, backed up to talk to his supervisor in front of an elevator shaft. After finishing, he put the forklift in forward and stepped on the gas at which time it went backward down the shaft, rendering our client a paraplegic. We soon discovered that this new forklift had been rushed into use just before the holiday season without a cold storage package, which would have prevented electrical malfunctions due to accumulated condensation. Our client is still in a wheelchair because of the demand for frozen turkeys. Confidential Settlement.
2. Contact With Low Power Lines Resulting in Paraplegia: The son of the above client also became our client when he was rendered a paraplegic as a result of falling off a grain silo. He had been told to clean old grain out of the bin which had been erected under some power lines. While the lines met a minimum code requiring a 10-foot clearance, they were still within reach of the metal pole he was given to do the job. Apparently, he came in contact with the line because he woke up on the ground with electrical marks on his body. Our client is still in a wheelchair because the farm supply company put a grain silo under a power line and the utility company did not routinely inspect its distribution lines. Confidential Settlement.
3. Rear Seat Lap Belt Paralyses Child: A seven-year old boy suffered paraplegic injuries when the SUV in which he was riding in the rear seat was involved in a head-on collision with a dump truck. He was only wearing a lap belt because the vehicle was not equipped with a shoulder harness or other three-point restraint system. Confidential Settlement.
4. Diet Drug Fen Phen Causes Heart Damage: The drug combination of Fen-Phen was banned by the FDA several years ago after numerous reports of injury and some deaths. We represent a number of victims of the diet drug who suffered injuries to their heart valves. Some required major surgery to replace the defective heart valves. Others have an incurable progressive cardiopulmonary illness. Through a combination of national settlement procedures and individual cases, millions of dollars were recovered for our clients.
5. Contaminated Blood Gives Hemophilia C Aids: Our client, a hemophiliac, contracted the AIDS virus from human blood factorate, which was used to enhance his bloods ability to clot. The factorate industry had taken few steps to screen blood received from donors and failed to timely implement tests that would have identified infected blood. Confidential Settlement.
6. Hip Fractured When Trailer Support Fails: The owner of a landscaping company suffered a significant fracture of his hip when a used dump trailer he had purchased the day before tipped over because support members fractured. The seller of the trailer claimed it had been properly inspected and that the owners use of the trailer was negligent. The case was tried and a verdict of $210,000 was obtained.
7. Burns Result From Gasoline Released By Defective Value: A maintenance worker for small construction equipment was severely burned as he tried to repair a miniature backhoe. The gas tank for the machine was designed in such a way that gasoline ran from a defective valve covering the client in gasoline. The gasoline was ignited from an unknown electrical source on the machine. Confidential Settlement.
8. Bad Weld In Air Tank Breaks Truckers Leg: A manufacturing defect in a reserve air tank caused the tank to explode, severely fracturing the leg of an over-the-road truck driver. Welded seams in the tank did not meet the specifications of the truck assembly company. A claim was filed against both the truck assembly company and the manufacturer of the reserve air tank. Confidential Settlement.
9. Parked Vehicle Catches Fire and Destroys Home: Our clients automobile caught fire while it was parked in the garage and it completely destroyed her home and contents. She brought a products liability claims against the automobile manufacturer, claims against her local automobile dealership for defective service, and claims against the alternator manufacturer for defective design. Confidential Settlement.
10. Defective Medical Devices Cause Mass Suffering: The Dalkon Shield IUD; Silicone breast implants; Acromed pedicle implants--the litany of bad medical devices goes on and on. We have handled a number of cases involving good medical ideas gone bad due to greed and avarice. In most of these cases, the fact pattern is the same--after some digging, evidence surfaces that the company knew of serious problems with their product but marketed it anyway, without any or adequate warnings, in order to profit at the expense of its customers. Eventually, the mounting injuries and deaths resulting in litigation, either forced the manufacturer to voluntarily recall the product or awoke a governmental regulatory agency, which eventually took some action. Wouldn't it have been nice if the people running A.H. Robins, Dow-Corning, Acromed and others acted in a morally responsible manner rather than hiding behind the corporate facade, which protects their behavior and hides their culpability? While that does happen in some companies, it is the exception not the rule. Consequently, we along with other plaintiff's lawyers will continue to pursue negligent manufacturers of defective medical products after the fact, to recover damages for our clients in hopes that this industry will learn from experience.
11. Vioxx Recall: Our clients' husband/father had taken the prescription Vioxx for approximately three years. He suffered a heart attack and died as a direct result of taking Vioxx. His widow and children filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The manufacturer of Vioxx instituted a settlement program to resolve certain Vioxx-related claims involving plaintiffs who had suffered a heart attack or stroke. Confidential Settlement.
12. Remington Rifle Model 700 Fires Without Trigger Pulled: Our client was hunting with his Remington Model 700 BDL, 30.06 Caliber Bolt Action Rifle when he had moved the safety to fire and was in the process of opening the bolt when the rifle fired. He did not pull the trigger. Remington Model 700 uses the Walker fire control system which intermittently will fire when the rifle is cycled from the "safe" to the "fire" position, or when the bolt is either opened or closed with the rifle in the "fire" position. Severe right foot injuries resulted in an out-of-court settlement of $250,000.
13. Claim Against Major Manufacturer of Infant and Child Products: Our clients are the parents of an infant that died of positional asphyxia in a bouncy seat due to the defective design of the restraint system. Confidential Settlement.
14. Remington Rifle Model 710 Fires Without Trigger Pulled: Our client was staying with friends on a ranch when his friend accidentally shot him. The bullet from the rifle entered his right hip, shattering the bone and piercing his sciatic nerve. His friend was adamant that the trigger was not pulled or contacted in any manner, but instead the rifle fired. The plaintiff alleged the Remington Model 710 bolt action rifle contains a dangerously defective Walker fire control system which may fire without a trigger pull upon release of the safety, movement of the bolt, or when jarred or bumped. Client suffering from Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy reached settlement of $1.425 million.
If you or a family member were recently injured by a defecive product, contact our Kansas City product liability law firm today.
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