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from my local newspaper...another stupid lawsuit....
Woman sues after severing four fingers in meat grinder
A Larimore, N.D., woman who severed four fingers in an electric meat grinder is suing the companies that designed and sold the machine she alleges was defective.
Ruth Bornsen, 53, and her husband, Nathan, are seeking more than $150,000 in damages from Pragotrade, an Ohio-based firm, and Cabela?s, a Nebraska-based retailer.
In November 2007, Bornsen was helping her husband at his meat-processing business in Emerado, N.D. She was operating a 1?-horsepower, commercial-grade grinder purchased the month before at Cabela?s outdoors supply store in East Grand Forks.
The Bornsens? complaint says she had not read the instruction manual but had seen her husband use the machine. A plastic plunger came with the grinder to push meat into the grinder?s chute. But because meat stuck to the plunger, she was not using it, the complaint says.
Wearing latex gloves for handling food, Bornsen was pushing deer meat into the grinder with her left hand when the grinder?s screw caught the tip of at least one of her glove fingers and pulled her hand into the grinder, the complaint states.
?My first thought was to shut off the machine, but I could not find an off-switch. I remember screaming for my husband and then grabbing the cord and jerking it until the machine stopped,? Bornsen said in an affidavit. ?I then remember looking at my hand without the fingers.?
Her husband wrapped her hand in a towel, removed her four fingers from the grinder, put them in a bucket and took her to Grand Forks to receive medical care, court documents say.
The couple?s complaint says Bornsen has undergone several surgeries and faces more surgeries and therapy to rehabilitate her hand. However, the document does not explicitly say if her fingers have been successfully re-attached.
The complaint alleges the grinder?s chute was too large and that the machine lacked sufficient safety warnings.
Pragotrade denies those allegations and counters that the couple?s negligence caused Bornsen?s injuries. The company?s response to the suit says the opening on the grinder?s chute is 2?-inches wide.
The grinder has a label that reads, ?WARNING: Keep fingers out of feed chute,? along with a picture of fingers getting caught. The Bornsens? complaint says the label was under a tray and could not be seen when using the grinder under normal conditions.
The complaint says Pragotrade manufactured the grinder, but the company denies making the product. Pragotrade acknowledges it took part in designing the grinder and that it sold grinders to Cabela?s.
Cabela?s is asking to be dismissed from the suit because it did not manufacture the grinder. Attorneys are set to discuss that issue Feb. 2 at a federal court hearing in Fargo.
Calls to the Bornsens? home rang unanswered Tuesday. Their attorney declined to comment on the case as did an attorney for Cabela?s. A message left for Pragotrade?s lawyer was not returned Tuesday.
Re: from my local newspaper...another stupid lawsuit....
Don't forget to drop the hot coffee on your lap and sue McDonalds. That is the only reasonable thing to do here.
People are so stupid. And this woman isn't even asking for that much in damages. It will cost her more than that to litigate the issue. Stupid people.
**shakes head**
Ok, I don't really have anything to say about this lawsuit, as it does sound sort of silly. BUT, I want to chime in to defend the coffee lawsuit, which has been vilified over the years with the general public but was, in reality, not at all frivolous. McDonalds knew for YEARS that its coffee was too hot and burned people. (Like practically boiling.) But rather than pay the money it would cost to get a part that could make the machines make coffee that wasn't so outrageously hot, it instead chose to settle with the all the people (and there were hundreds), who suffered pretty severe burns from the coffee. The woman who finally pursued the lawsuit to its end suffered third- and fourth-degree burns in her groin that required a lot of painful surgeries, skin grafts, and horrible recovery.
And the jury award that people thought was SO excessive? It amounted to the profits that McDonalds makes from coffee worldwide in TWO DAYS. Two days. The McDonalds lawsuit was not frivolous. The coffee was dangerously hot. They knew, chose to pay to make people go away, rather than fixing the problem, and they ultimately were properly sanctioned for that decision.
it was just a joke...sorry you took it so seriously...this was about the lawsuit posted above that i thought was ridiculous....sorry if it was in bad taste to bring up the mcdonalds suit. I know she was severely hurt and I feel bad that anyone had to be that injured, but really, coffee out of my pot at home would do severe damage also. It's coffee, it's meant to be hot.
I know I'm coming off as snarky here but it wasn't meant to be a debate over a mcdonalds lawsuit.
While it sounds frivolous, that case is one I can kind of understand. How about the people though who sue McDonalds for making them fat? In each case you could easily say, "Just don't eat at McDonalds. Don't drink their coffee." Hot coffee is dangerous. I guess eating a cheeseburger isn't an immediate danger but over the long run could be if you eat thousands of them. So....I guess you can't really compare the two. Nevermind. :-) I talked myself out of my own argument.
As for the lady and the meat grinder....HI, it's a MEAT GRINDER. BE CAREFUL. Accidents happen! I didn't sue Chicago Cutlery when I cut half my thumbnail off! I was using a sharp object! Duh. This country is so freaking sue-happy.
My parent's ex-next door neighbor wanted to sue because his dog's hair was cut too short!!! For a short time he was actually serious and then people talked some sense into him.
no worries at all!
Yes, people do exactly that. It can be frustrating if you are on the receiving end for sure.
The problem with that is that you can still have a valid, meritorious claim, and still lose your case.
I have no problem with making those who bring frivolous suits pay the other side's legal fees (which we do here), but it seems really unfair and contrary to American legal principles that you have to pay the other side's fees just because you lose, even if you had a valid claim.