Montgomery County Products Liability Case Settles for $1.26 Mil
February, 2008Attorneys in Montgomery County resolved a products liability case for $1.26 million earlier this month.
In Pendley v. Genesis Worldwide II Inc., Ontario, Canada-based industrial equipment manufacturer Genesis Worldwide II Inc. and Cincinnati-based used machinery dealer Mohawk Machinery Inc. agreed to pay a combined $1.26 million to plaintiff Courtney Pendley, an employee of Rolled Metal Products in Fort Washington, Pa., who was injured by a steel-cutting machine he was operating.
After a day-long session with ADR Options mediator Edward L. Edelstein on Feb. 12, Genesis consented to paying $1.25 million, with Mohawk picking up the other $10,000.
The plaintiff's attorney, Christopher T. Moyer of Philadelphia-based Master Weinstein Schnoll & Dodig, said his client's original pretrial demand was for $2.5 million in damages to cover lost wages, as well as physical and psychological injury. The defense had made no offers when the parties entered mediation, however.
While the original demand was slashed nearly in half in the settlement, lessening the load for the defendants while still leaving a significant award for the plaintiff, compromise is always a little bittersweet, said Michael P. O'Connor of Philadelphia firm Murphy & O'Connor, who represented Mohawk in the case.
"As in all settlements, I suppose everyone walked away a little unhappy," he said.
Still, Moyer said, getting slightly over 50 percent of what they had originally asked for was more than satisfactory.
"I was very happy with it," he said.
Genesis' attorney, Tom Kuzmick of Rawle & Henderson in Philadelphia, could not be reached by press time.
According to the plaintiff's and both defendants' mediation memorandums, on Feb. 6, 2001, Pendley, whose job it was to operate a steel-cutting machine called a slitting line, accidentally got the sleeve of his left arm caught in the device. His arm was pulled into the mechanism, resulting in injuries to his hand and his forearm that eventually led to the amputation of part of his thumb and significant loss of function of his hand and arm.
The suit also claimed the accident caused post-traumatic stress syndrome, which hindered Pendley's ability to return to the work force for some time after the accident.
The plaintiff's mediation memorandum quoted an expert physician who evaluated Pendley as saying the injury had a "devastating effect on him physically, psychologically, socially and vocationally."
The memorandum alleged strict liability and negligence on the part of Genesis, which manufactured and distributed the slitting line, for failing to equip the machine with a protective guard. To support these claims, the plaintiff pointed to a 2001 U.S. Eastern District Court case against Genesis in which a jury found an "almost identical product" to be "defective and unreasonably dangerous," ordering the company to pay $1.5 million in damages.
In its own memorandum, Genesis maintained the slitting line was "reasonably safe for its intended use" and "accompanied by adequate warnings at the time it left the company's control." The company argued further that the piece of the machine that injured Pendley was "an inherent part of the working mechanism" that "could not be designed out." It also said protective guarding would have hindered the machine's intended function.
Genesis said Pendley's actions were in violation of the warnings posted on the machine, which cautioned against placing extremities near moving parts of the machine and wearing loose clothing that could become entangled in them.
The plaintiff also claimed Mohawk Machinery was partially responsible for selling the slitting line to Rolled Metal.
In its memorandum, Mohawk said it had no involvement whatsoever in the design, manufacture or maintenance of the slitting line. The company argued that Pendley had assumed a risk by placing his hand near the machine while it was moving. The memorandum also alleged Pendley had "plenty of opportunities to return to work at an earlier date and failed to do so," citing his deposition at which, according to the transcript, he admitted Rolled Metal Products offered him a desk job after his injury but he declined because he "didn't want to go back to a place that I almost got my arm torn off at."
Moyer said he was relieved the case never went to trial, given what he calls the Montgomery County court's "not so plaintiff-friendly" attitude when deciding liability cases.
He said the county has a reputation for tending toward defense verdicts and for being "conservative" in the amounts awarded in plaintiff verdicts.
Montgomery County Court Administrator Michael R. Kehs said the only liability verdicts the county is responsible for maintaining statistics on are medical malpractice verdicts, which it must report to the state annually.
In 2006, 13 out of 16 medical malpractice verdicts went to the defendant. Two of the plaintiff verdicts were for $500,000 or less and one was for more than $10 million.
In 2007, all 12 medical malpractice cases that went to trial ended in defense verdicts.
Moyer said Genesis' financial problems affected the efficiency of the proceedings.
"It made getting documents and putting together the types of burdens of proof you need in product liability cases a little more difficult," he said.
Both Moyer and O'Connor praised Edelstein's mediation of the case and said alternative dispute resolution was an effective way to resolve cases pretrial.
"It's a process I never turn down," said Moyer. "In terms of the actual service, you get an independent person coming in and discussing not only the strengths of [each side of] the case, but also the weaknesses."
"Mediation has been and continues to be the way litigation is being directed," O'Connor said.
Moyer said he felt the process has benefits even when it fails to resolve the dispute.
"Even if you don't settle, mediation helps you analyze the case from a different perspective [which can be helpful] if you have to try the case," he said.