Product Liability
A sixty-two-year-old man climbed up a ladder at work to clean off the roof of an apartment building in St. Charles, Missouri. He ascended the ladder attempting to reach the roof to blow leaves off it. It was his first trip up the ladder after it was set up in that location. The first sign of a problem was that he heard a clicking noise, which he associated with the sound that an extension ladder makes while going up and down. He then heard three clicks, and then he was falling. As a result of the sliding/telescoping, he fell to the ground suffering spinal cord injuries and other permanent and disabling injuries including a catastrophic cervical spinal cord injury categorized as C3 ASIA D spastic quadriplegia.
While the ladder was extended and leaning against the roof, the top portion of the ladder slid down or telescoped due to a defective design and/or insufficient warnings. The defective design made it susceptible to false-locking, where the user would be led to believe the locks were engaged when the ladder was extended even though they were not actually engaged. Further, there were no pictorial labels on the ladder to depict what properly engaged locks looked like. The ladder manufacturer had subsequently changed the design of this ladder and also affixed such pictorial labels. Mr. Marciano and Mr. MacAvoy retained an expert in the case who had worked for the product manufacturer for sixteen years, including as a senior product manager.
The defendants were the designers and manufacturers of the ladder and the sellers of the ladder. The defense argued that the ladder was not defective and that the victim misused the ladder and/or failed to read and heed its warnings and instructions. The defense denied liability and blamed the victim for his fall.
The victim was 62 years old at the time of his fall and he worked as leaf blower for apartment complexes. His treating doctors opined that he was permanently disabled from employment as a result of his incomplete quadriplegia. Experts opined that he suffered significant economic damages including a future medical care costs, past wage loss, loss in potential earning capacity and substantial liens. Because of his injuries, the victim will never enjoy his once active lifestyle, and instead he faces the daily life-altering challenge of life as a quadriplegic.
After jury selection, Mr. Marciano and Mr. MacAvoy obtained for the victim a total combined personal injury settlement of $7,500,000.
