$1,650,000 SETTLEMENT – Defective Product –  Death of a 58 year old man

We represented the estate of a 58 year-old single man with no children for a wrongful death claim against the assembler of a commercial truck.  Our client was found dead entangled in a PTO shaft underneath his parked truck with a screwdriver in his hand while he was making a delivery for his employer.  There were no witnesses to this tragedy.  Our mechanical engineering expert opined that the truck was defectively assembled because: (1) it should have included a guard around the PTO shaft; (2) the pump in the truck was facing in the wrong direction requiring any repairs on the pump to be made while under the truck rather than along side it; and (3) the truck lacked any warnings about the dangers of going underneath the truck and near the spinning PTO shaft.  Defendant denied that the truck was defective and instead blamed our client for going underneath the truck and putting himself in harms way.  We had an economist that concluded the loss of earnings to the estate was between $282,000 and $397,000.   After more than 10 depositions were taken of first responders, our client’s employer, the parties and our experts, the case settled following a mediation several weeks before trial was scheduled to begin.

 

* Please note that prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome in other matters or cases, as each case has a unique set of facts and circumstances.