Our Experience. Our Results.
Jacobs, a minor v. Merrill Dow Co. $5 Million Settlement
The plaintiff who was a young child received a DPT vaccination drug made by the defendant. The child suffered devastating seizures and brain damage. The Plaintiff argued that the defendant had designed the drug with an inferior formula which had a heightened risk of adverse events.
Morgan, a minor v. International Harvester, nka Navistar $5 Million Settlement
The plaintiff's mother was mowing the lawn with an International Harvester "Cadet 85 Special" rear-engine riding lawn mower, which had been manufactured in l975. After the mower became stuck, the mother got off her seat without disengaging the manual blade control lever, and attempted to move the machine. The plaintiff, a two year old boy who had been inside the screened porch, unexpectedly opened the door and walked into the lawn in front of the mower at the same moment that the mower became dislodged. The mower traveled a few feet before knocking the toddler to the ground and mutilating his left foot and ankle resulting in a below the knee amputation.
The plaintiff alleged that the riding mower product should have been equipped with a selective "dead man" safety seat, which causes the engine to automatically kill if the operator leaves the seat without remembering to disengage the manual blade lever. The plaintiff's counsel found industry research that showed that the primary injury to bystanders and riding mower operators was blade contact while the operator was off the seat with the blade engaged. The plaintiff's counsel found three facsimile mower products and had one riding mower re-engineered and built with a dead man safety seat device that eliminated the danger. This case was the largest settlement from hundreds of cases involving power riding lawn mower accidents. Deadpan safety switches are now an industry standard.
Estate of Taylor v. Chrysler Motor Co. $4.5 Million Settlement
A sixty year old woman who was survived by her two adult children was one of twelve passengers on a Dodge Model B3500 Wag "Cargo Van." The vehicle was traveling southbound on U.S. Interstate 55, rolled over and crashed in a snow storm killing all passengers and the driver. The plaintiff's estate alleged that the vehicle, when loaded near capacity became unstable as a result of a high center of gravity and caused the vehicle to "yaw." The plaintiff's counsel using reconstruction engineers and design engineers was able to show that the "yaw" pattern had occurred immediately before the crash. The Taylor family obtained the largest individual settlement of any of the 12 cases involved.
Munoz v. General Motors $3 Million Settlement
The plaintiff was a trash hauler who drove a garbage truck which had been modified on General Motors chassis with a front loading, hydraulic lift. The truck drivers would exit the cab to operate the hydraulic lift. While operating the lift, the plaintiff slipped on the pavement causing his knee to become "pinched" between the arms of the lift and resulting in amputation of his leg above the knee. The Plaintiff alleged that the design was faulty, because the placement of operator controls allowed the driver to be exposed to an unnecessary danger.
In Re Fen-Phen Litigation $1.6 Million Settlement
The Plaintiff used the Fen-Phen combination of drugs for weight loss and developed a life threatening lung and heart condition. The Plaintiff alleged that defendant American Home Products failed to adequately warning prescribing physicians of the side effects reported from this "off-label" use of the two drugs in combination.
Miller v. Straight Line Water Sports $1.1 Million Settlement
In l996, the defendant Straight Line Water Sports began selling a new device attached to its tow ropes called the "Woggle," which was manufactured in Hong Kong using an injection mold plastic process. The Woggle was intended as a quick release device to connect and disconnect tow ropes to water ski rope handles and inner tubes. The plaintiff, age 16, was being towed behind her father's ski boat on an inner tube, when the Woggle device shattered causing the tow rope to snap back and strike the plaintiff in her eye. The blunt trauma blinded the plaintiff in one eye. The Woggle device sank to the bottom of the Illinois River.
The plaintiff alleged that the Woggle device had a propensity to fracture under load based on a design defect in the design of the ejection mold used. Using a plastics engineer who tested dozens of facsimile Woggles, plaintiff's counsel proved that the injected mold had improperly placed gates, which produced air bubbles causing weakness in the Woggle. This is a rare case of reverse engineering used to prove a defect when the injury causing product is no longer available for testing or examination.
Hicks v. Munoz Flour Products $1 Million Settlement
The defendant was a tortilla manufacturer which stored its raw flour in a grain silo next to the plant. The flour storage methods caused a mold toxin to develop in the raw flour which when used in the tortillas caused them to become contaminated. Upon eating a tortilla, a patron would become sick with flu like symptoms within minutes. The Plaintiff was a long time manufacturer of finished burrito food products that were sold in school lunch programs. After the flu outbreaks in school lunchrooms, the plaintiff went out of business from lack of new sales to school districts.
Frazier v. Victoria Secret $420,000 Settlement
The defendant Victoria Secret decided to sell skin care products introducing a product labeled "Pear Glace Moisturizing Body Splash." The product was its number one selling cosmetics product. Victoria Secret's Marketing Department designed the labeling and marketed it as a "moisturizer," despite the product's primary ingredient being SD Alcohol 40, which is highly flammable.
The plaintiff who was a twenty-year-old African American female applied the product liberally, as instructed, to her arms, chest and neck, while dressing in the bathroom with the door closed. After she put on her blouse, she lit a cigarette causing ignition and a blue flame. She suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns to eleven percent of her body.
The plaintiff's counsel argued that the label should have included "Flammable-Keep Away from Heat or Open Flame" and dropped the word "Moisturizing." Research of competitive market products revealed that other body splash products carried warnings regarding flammability.
