A jury is supposed to be made up of 12 of your piers. So there should have
been 12 woodworkers on the jury and they'd have finished the case in a day.
I like the idea of having to pay legal costs if you lose. Adds some extra
consideration before finding a slick attorney and filing papers.
----- Original Message -----
From: Cy Selfridge
To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2010 6:18 PM
Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] FW: How much is a finger worth?
Bob,
I could not agree with you more. These idiot law suits should be illegal
and, furthermore, when the plaintiff looses I am not sure that he should not
have to pay the legal costs involved in the defense. Man, that sure would
slow down some folks who know that it will cost the company or other person
a whole lot to defend themselves even though the case may be hopeless.
You are also correct, even if the saw had all of the available safety
equipment on it the moron would probably have disabled it as well. How the
Dickens did that goof win the case?
Cy, The anasazi
From: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com [mailto:blindhandy...@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Bob Kennedy
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2010 3:47 PM
To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] FW: How much is a finger worth?
This is truly a disgusting reflection on the legal system.
To reward some idiot for disabling any safety features that were available
is crazy.
I've researched this case for an article I am helping write for another list
I'm on. For those that don't know the details, here are the important ones.
The guy was working for a hardwood flooring company. He was using a "bench
top" saw, not on a table or bench top, but on the floor.
Next, he was trying to run a piece of 3 quarter inch thick by 2 and a
quarter inches wide piece of oak wood through the blade of this saw without
any available safety devices.
If you read the instruction manual for any saw, they advise having the blade
set so the teeth are just above the surface of the wood being cut.
Court papers show he had the blade set to 3 inches, almost 2 and a quarter
inches higher than recommended, and almost the limit for blade height on
that particular saw.
All table saw manufacturers recommend keeping the blade guard in place. This
one had been removed.
Anyone that uses a table saw knows the fence is required to make a straight
cut. The fence in this case was not on the saw either. The victim admitted
in court, both the blade guard and fence were not in place.
Finally, when he started the cut, he said the wood started to chatter so he
shut the saw down. He brushed the surface of the table clean and resumed his
cut. When the wood started chattering again, he started pushing harder,
completely opposite what you should do, and that is when his mishap
occurred.
In the court papers, he admitted to having operated the saw while on one
knee on the floor. A completely off balance position.
It is important to note that the law suit doesn't involve the flooring
company this guy worked for.
This is an attempt to mandate that all saws carry the blade break system in
place on the SawStop brand.
The model saw used cost $159 from home Depot. A bench top saw is designed to
be lighter in weight, and is smaller so it can be used on a bench top.
Adding a blade brake would greatly increase the size of the saw, and
probably make it unsafe to sit on a bench. Not to mention the fact that you
can forget about $159 for a price. The same saw would most likely double in
price if not more.
If the congress really wants to do something productive, something that
would help all of us, they need to put a stop to law suits like this. Suing
McDonalds because you are fat, or because their coffee is too hot?
When I owned a shop years ago, we were all terrified as business owners when
some jerk picked up a running lawn mower and tried to cut his hedges with
it.
This guy lost his finger tips but sued because there wasn't a warning label
saying a mower wasn't fit for trimming hedges.
His win in this law suit put a whole company out of business. You can't
legislate against stupidity. If I use a machine designed to cut something as
hard as oak wood, I know it won't have a problem cutting my fingers or hand
off.
If I take off the blade guard and fence and still try to cut wood, I deserve
any punishment the saw dishes out for being that stupid.
Have a problem paying for health insurance? Paying claims like these are
what helps boost the cost.
----- Original Message -----
From: Shane Hecker
To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com <mailto:blindhandyman%40yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2010 4:35 PM
Subject: [BlindHandyMan] FW: How much is a finger worth?
I thought this was interesting.
Shane
Feed: Productopia: The ConsumerSearch Blog
Posted on: Saturday, July 24, 2010 8:02 AM
Author: Catherine Jo Morgan
Subject: How much is a finger worth?
How about a hand? Do table saw
<http://www.consumersearch.com/table-saw-reviews> manufacturers have an
obligation to use the safest technology available? The first jury to
consider this question -- in a civil lawsuit against the maker of Ryobi
table saws -- answered quite a definite "yes," to the tune of a 1.5 million
dollar award
<http://www.boston.com/yourtown/malden/articles/2010/03/06/man_wins_15m_in_f
irst_of_its_kind_saw_case/%20> to the plaintiff.
read
<http://www.consumersearch.com/blog/how-much-is-a-finger-worth-0?utm_source=
RSS
<http://www.consumersearch.com/blog/how-much-is-a-finger-worth-0?utm_source=
RSS&utm_medium=RSS> &utm_medium=RSS> more
<http://rss.consumersearch.com/~ff/product-reviews?a=RST_N4bUEek:Ijc4TGBBRpI
:yIl2AUoC8zA>
<http://rss.consumersearch.com/~ff/product-reviews?a=RST_N4bUEek:Ijc4TGBBRpI
:qj6IDK7rITs>
<http://rss.consumersearch.com/~ff/product-reviews?a=RST_N4bUEek:Ijc4TGBBRpI
:V_sGLiPBpWU>
<http://rss.consumersearch.com/~ff/product-reviews?a=RST_N4bUEek:Ijc4TGBBRpI
:gIN9vFwOqvQ>
<http://rss.consumersearch.com/~ff/product-reviews?a=RST_N4bUEek:Ijc4TGBBRpI
:F7zBnMyn0Lo>
<http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/product-reviews/~4/RST_N4bUEek>
View
<http://rss.consumersearch.com/~r/product-reviews/~3/RST_N4bUEek/how-much-is
-a-finger-worth-0> article...
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