PRODUCT LIABILITY CLAIM SETTLES FOR OVER ONE MILLION DOLLARS
A young boy and his friends were playing baseball with a plastic bat and ball that his parents had purchased at a local toy store only days earlier. When the child who was batting swung the bat, it snapped in half propelling the spinning barrel through the air. Unfortunately, the barrel and hard plastic internal component struck one of the children directly in his eye, causing significant injuries. After multiple surgeries and extensive therapies, although the child regained much of his eye sight, he still suffered from some residual visual deficits. Martinez Manglardi argued that the design of the bat was unreasonably dangerous, and that the dangerous design had caused the accident.
The bat was eventually removed from the market and a new safer design was substituted in its place. The defendants argued, however, that the bat had been on the market for years before the accident, and that there were no similar incidents or complaints involving the bat. The claim was ultimately resolved for a total exceeding 1.3 Million Dollars, including payments to cover the child’s anticipated future medical expenses, as well as funds to cover the cost of the child’s education.
