$608,000 Award Given to Factory Worker for Mangled Hands
The jury delivered a multimillion-dollar award but assigned only a fraction of liability to the machine's manufacturer.
January 22, 2019 at 09:00 AM
2 minute read
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PRODUCTS LIABILITY
US DISTRICT COURT, JACKSONVILLE
A factory worker whose hands were injured while working on an industrial machine producing aircraft wire was awarded $608,000.
In 2014, Cheri Conklin, then in her late 40s, was using her fingers to smooth out wrinkles in the tape of a machine producing bundles of insulated wire for use in aircraft when the pad of her right index finger was grabbed by the machine's in-running belts. Eventually, both hands were ensnared by the belts. Conklin claimed the machine's maker, RT Engineering Corp., failed to include a guard on the machine that would prevent such an accident.
RTE claimed it shipped a guard to be assembled with the rest of the machine, but Conklin's employer, Carlisle Interconnect Technologies Inc., failed to install it. RTE also claimed Conklin put her hand in a dangerous part of the machine. The jury awarded $3.38 million and assigned 18 percent liability to RTE for a net award of $608,745.
Case: Conklin v. RT Engineering
Case No.: 3:17-cv-415-39-JRK
Plaintiffs attorneys: Steven R. Browning and Keith Maynard; Spohrer & Dodd, Jacksonville
Defense attorneys: Rory Eric Jurman and Jesse D. Drawas, Fowler White Burnett, Fort Lauderdale
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