Jeffrey Ward of Drew Eckl & Farnham/photo by Ian McFarlane

The defense logged a win in a federal trial involving claims that two commercial off-road wood chippers were unreliable and prone to breakdowns, and that the manufacturer breached its warranties.

Lawyers for the plaintiff, a south Georgia company that rents out equipment and provides services for clearing timber, had asked the jury to award nearly $1.3 million, said Jeffrey Ward of Drew Eckl & Farnham's Brunswick office.

"They had eyewitness testimony on a variety of issues they claimed they had with these things, that they didn't work for a day without breaking down," he said.

The chippers, about 30 feet long and 11 feet wide, are commonly used to clear heavy timber for pipeline and utility rights of way, Ward said.

Among the claims was that the machines would turn on and off even if no one was in the control booth.

"There was testimony that one started itself up and started throwing chips out on I-20 in Louisiana," said Ward, who represents defendant Terex Corp. with lead counsel Cary Hiltgen of Hiltgen & Brewer in Oklahoma City. 

Hiltgen is past-president of the Defense Research Institute. Ward is president-elect of the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association.

Plaintiff ROW Equipment is represented by Brent Savage, Kathryn Pinckney and Sam Mikell of Savannah's Savage, Durham, Turner, Pinckney & Savage.

In an email Savage said, "We respect the jury's decision but were surprised by the result. We still feel we have a meritorious case."

According to ROW's complaint, the first Woodsman Biomass Chipper it bought in 2012 had "mechanical issues," including several broken components.  

Terex "was aware that there were mechanical issues with Chipper 1 and assured the plaintiff that it will repair these issues," the complaint said. "However, Terex Corporation has failed to repair the issues."

Nonetheless, ROW bought another chipper in 2014 that it claimed was also defective. 

In addition to engaging on its own, "Chipper 2 also has electrical problems, including, but not limited to, a defective radio and camera in the cab and a defective squirt boom."

The shoddy manufacturing and design not only cost ROW because of lost business revenue for "machines which are in fact worth hundreds of thousands of dollars less than [they] should be because the machines are defective," it said.

The chippers were repossessed in late 2016. 

ROW and its owner, John James, sued in Pierce County Superior Court, and Terex had the complaint removed to the U.S. District Court for Georgia's Southern District in Waycross. 

The suit included claims for breach of contract, negligent design, negligent manufacturing and breach of express and implied warranties, but several claims were dismissed on summary judgment as the litigation progressed.

The case went to trial Dec. 9 before Judge Stan Baker on ROW's claims for breach of warranty and attorney fees.

Ward said the main witnesses were ROW's owner and company employees, who testified about problems with the chippers "and how they broke down all the time."

There was also testimony from a customer who rented one of the chippers and also allegedly had problems, Ward said. 

The plaintiffs lawyers asked for special damages of $887,000, Ward said, and attorney fees of 33%, for a total just shy of $1.3 million.

The jury took about four hours to find for the defense at about 8:30 p.m. Friday, he said.

Baker did not allow the lawyers to speak to the jurors, Ward said. 

Hiltgen said he thought the jury understood that Terex had done its best to satisfy James and his company.

"Mr. Savage and his team tried an exceptional case," said Hiltgen. "Our client just thought we had treated the customer very fairly and each and every time they requested warranty work, we serviced the machinery."

"Sometime you just have to stand behind the men and women who actually build the product; we wanted to show the employees that we were standing behind them," he said.