Confidential
Settlement – $2,085,000Facts
From 1974 to 1980, the defendant forklift seller sold approximately 300 stand-up forklifts to the defendant grocery chain. These forklifts were customarily referred to as "dockers." These dockers were sold to the defendant grocery chain specifically to used to loading and unloading material from the defendant grocery chain's trailers at their distribution centers. The defendant forklift seller failed to properly assess the trailers dimensions because immediately after the defendant grocery chain took delivery of the first five dockers, it was discovered that the dockers would not fit into the trailers. The height of the docker's overhead guard assembly prevented the docker from entering the trailer. The defendant forklift seller recommended that assembly prevented the docker from entering the trailer. The defendant forklift seller recommended that the defendant grocery chain remove the overhead guard assembly from the docker and operate the docker without this factory installed safety device. This recommendation was made without the manufacturer's approval, without any technical input, and without offering an alternative docker that would fit. Several years before this accident, the defendant grocery chain replaced the trailers, which would accommodate dockers with overhead guards but failed to reinstall them on this docker. The defendant warehouse loaded pallets of pasta into the back of the defendant grocery chain's trailer. Although most of the pallets were shrink wrapped, after the pallets were loaded in the back of the trailer. The defendant warehouse put additional packages of pasta on top of the pallets. These loose packages of pasta were laoded up to the interior roof of trailer. The defendant grocery chain's trailer utilized a roll-up at the back of the trailer. However, the defendant door manufacturer failed to incorporate a guard into this roll-door to prevent pallets or material from pushing the door down after it was opened. Additionally, the defendant door manufacturer failed to incorporate a locking device into the roll-up to keep the door open during loading and unloading operations. On March 28, 1995, the plaintiff a 53-year-old receiving clerk, was unloading the pallets of pasta from the trailer that had been previously loaded by the warehouse. To perform this function, the plaintiff would enter the trailer with his docker, place the forks of the docker under the pallet, raise the forks about + inch, and back the docker out of the trailer, placing the pallets on the floor of the warehouse. During this unloading process, some of the loose pasta packages on top of the pallets came in contact with the roll-up door as the plaintiff was backing out of the trailer, causing the trailer's roll-up door to lower of few feet. As the plaintiff backed out of the trailer, his head hit against the roll-up door banging the plaintiff's head between the trailer door and the mast of the docker.
Specials in Evidence
$485,000 $160,000 undetermined undetermined
Injuries
The plaintiff sustained facial and jaw fracture, impaired vision, neurologic injury, impaired cognitive function, and nerve and muscular damage.
Result
PLEASE RESPOND ASAP!!! THANK YOU
Other Information
The settlement was reached approximately three years and nine months after the case was filed. A mediation was held on Oct. 9, 1998, before Judge William Burby, retired, resulting in a settlement with the defendants door manufacturer for $300,000, the defendant warehouse for $600,000 and the grocery chain for $100,000 plus a waiver of the $585,000 workers' compensation lien. The defendant forklift seller settled with the plaintiff for $500,000 to a mediation with Viggo Boserup on Feb. 22, 1999.
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