Osorio v. One World Technologies, Inc.

659 F.3d 81 (1st Cir. 2011)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P suffered a hand injury while he operated a Ryobi table saw. P' employer had purchased it at a Home Depot store for $179.20. P's left hand slipped and slid into the saw's blade, causing severe injury. P sued D claiming negligence and breach of the implied warranty of merchantability. P argued that the saw was unacceptably dangerous due to a defective design. P's expert witness was Dr. Stephen Gass, inventor of 'SawStop,' a mechanism that allows a table saw to sense when the blade comes into contact with flesh, immediately stops the blade from spinning, and causes it to retract into the body of the saw. To date, none of the major power tool manufacturers has adopted SawStop. P alleged that Ds' failure to incorporate SawStop into their designs is due to a collective understanding that if any of them adopts the technology, then the others will face heightened liability exposure for not doing so as well. The jury returned a verdict in favor of P and awarded damages of $1.5 million. The jury found P was negligent and thirty-five percent at fault for the accident. The jury also found D liable for breach of the implied warranty of merchantability. D then moved for judgment as a matter of law, or a new trial. The district court denied the motion. D appealed.