The lawsuit was filed by Moises Ore, a man from Broward County who fell off the ladder when it broke as he was retrieving tires at a Tire Kingdom Warehouse where he worked as a regional sales manager.
The Husky-brand ladder was manufactured by Tricam Industries and sold at Home Depot.
Tricam is accuse of manufacturing a faulty ladder by punching holes in the fiberglass in the wrong places, misplacing rivets, and failing to inspect the ladder to find the defects before sending it to Home Depot.
Lawyers say at least one of several rivets holding together the ladder joints broke under normal use, causing Ore to fall and suffer severe injuries that will require a lifetime of medical care:
The manufacturing defect in this ladder was ticking time bomb in the form of a misplaced rivet at the top of the ladder that was critical to the ladder’s function. The defect led to the fatigue fracture of a rivet where the hinge exists at the top of the ladder.”
Ore was awarded roughly $2.3 million for loss of past and future income, $425,000 for past and future medical expenses, and $2 million for past and future non-economic losses like pain and suffering, for a total payout of $4,725,000.
Lawyers for Home Depot and Tricam Industries say they plan to appeal the verdict.
Tricam has been hit with other lawsuits involving defective Husky ladders, as well as numerous complaints to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). According to one complaint: “The method of using a rivet to hold a support arm is unsafe. Rivets don’t have the inherent physical strength to handle the support arm load.”
The lawsuit was filed on February 4, 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida — In Re: Ore et al. v. Tricam Industries Inc. et al — Case No. 0:14-cv-60269.
Source: Jury Awards Fla. Man Nearly $5M In Ladder Defect Suit