Case Results

Bob Blau’s client was driving up a steep hill on U.S. 27 in Falmouth when a vehicle coming down the hill crossed the center line and headed straight for her. She weaved left to try to avoid the collision as the other driver pulled back into his lane. The cars crashed in the center of the highway, making it difficult to determine which party was at fault. Thus the 50/50 split verdict. Bob Blau’s client suffered serious facial injuries, a closed brain injury, and fractures.

A customer accidentally discharged his pistol into the box of targets. The targets exploded, causing a chain reaction with other ammunition which resulted in a fire as well. Bob Blau’s client escaped the building but suffered a severe concussion, flash burns and trauma, which resulted in her suffering from post traumatic pain syndrome / PTSD. A lawsuit was filed against the North Carolina manufacturer of the targets as they were clearly illegally manufactured and marketed in violation of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regulations. The lawsuit also asserted product liability claims and defective product claims. The box contained no warnings, was inadequately designed and was not guarded.

This was a unique case based on old railroad tort injury law. A person could sue a railroad company if they were negligently put off the train at the wrong depot and they then were injured walking home. The contract was to be delivered to the correct location. In the doctors case, he had to defend a malpractice claim without the aid of his insurance. The negligence was in refusing to assist him. The jury agreed and awarded him $167,000.

The client’s hand was amputated when a hydraulic shaft was allowed to exist without any guard. The man got onto the side of the truck, reached up to hold on, and the shaft closed down and crushed and cut off 4 fingers — leaving only his thumb. The claim based on a defective product was quite obvious. An engineer was retained who, using cardboard, demonstrated how easily this accident could have been avoided. He folded the cardboard around the opening, closing off the inadvertent access. The manufacturer promptly settled.

The gyroscope operator spun the gyroscope around excessively, causing the blood of our client to rush to his head and making him lose consciousness. He suffered burst veins in his face, a brain injury, swelling of his optic nerve, and a speech impediment which required speech therapy. The machine was defective, lacked adequate warnings, and was negligently designed. Furthermore operator training was totally inadequate and careless.

The mower blades were not guarded properly and debris rocks were picked up and thrown directly at the operator on the tractor. Bob Blau’s client was watching his line/path when a rock was thrown up and hit him in the eye, blinding him in that eye. The mower and tractor were taken to an engineer testing lab in Chicago, where it was demonstrated and proven that the mower guard was inadequate and did not protect the operator from objects struck and thrown by the mower blades. A PVC pipe was placed above the blades and rocks were dropped through the pipe above the blades. A piece of foam board was placed in the tractor driver seat. The rock hits to the foam board proved the guard to be defective. The engineer, based on this study, wrote and had adopted an ANSI standard to prevent this accident from reoccurring.