The lawsuit was filed by Alex Mai, a man who was injured in a kickback incident involving a Ryobi BTS-10 table saw in March 2012.
Mai was using the table saw to install hardwood floors in a woman’s home in South Philadelphia. He was 19 years old and did not have experience using table saws, but was told to cut a length of flooring.
Just before he finished cutting a piece of wood in half, the wood came in contact with the back of the saw blade, causing a kickback accident that pushed his fingers into the spinning saw blade.
His right middle finger was immediately severed at the knuckle. He also suffered permanent nerve damage to his right index finger.
Lawyers his injuries resulted from a faulty, ineffective guard design, and Ryobi’s failure to incorporate flesh-sensing safety technology that would eliminate the risk of serious injuries from using their table saws.
This is not the first massive payout from Ryobi over a table saw lawsuit. In 2009, a jury awarded $1.5 million to Carlos Osorio, a man who required five surgeries after a Ryobi table saw mutilated his hand as he was laying hardwood floors in 2006.
The lawsuit was filed in May 2014 in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas — In RE: Mai v. Ryobi Technologies Inc. et al — Case No. 140303388.