$850,000 Settlement for Product Liability

Blume Donnelly partner Jeffrey Zenna represented a 23-year-old man who was injured while working. Our client worked for a company where he operated a planetary grinder/polisher used to strip and polish large areas of flooring. The man was servicing the machine, attempting to change the diamond blades at the bottom of the machine. In order to do that, the machine needed to be tilted backward, and a bungee cord, provided by the manufacturer, HID Corporation, needed to be used to secure a dust shroud on the machine. While attempting to secure the dust shroud the bungee cord came detached from the machine and struck our client in the left eye. The man suffered a retinal injury and has diminished eye sight in the eye.

Our client was not wearing eye protection at the time of the accident. His employer advised that eye protection was provided to all employees, and that employees were told to wear the eye protection at all times. Our client asserted that he was not told to wear eye protection.

Blume Donnelly commenced a product liability suit on behalf of our client against the product manufacturer, HID Corporation, a company located in the Netherlands. We also made claims against the distributor of the product, SASE Corp., a Bridgewater, New Jersey company. Jeff argued that the machine was defective in design , as it was unreasonably dangerous. Jeff engaged an expert who was able to show there were alternative designs available which would have allowed a user to retract the dust shroud without using a dangerous bungee cord.

Jeffrey Zenna settled this claim for $850,000.