August 21, 2017
A product liability suit against Home Depot USA Inc. and Tricam Industries Inc. settled for $4.7 million.
Moises Ore was a regional sales manager at Tire Kingdom. Ore climbed a ladder to retrieve a tire for a customer, and the eighth rung on the ladder gave out, making him fall several feet to the ground.
Ore was found unconscious on the floor, and paramedics determined he had injured his entire right side and elbow, and herniated a disk in his neck. He had to have two should surgeries, and a toe joint replaced.
Ore filed a product liability suit against Tricam and Home Depot, due to a manufacturing defect in the ladder. The defense offered $350,000 to settle the case, but Ore’s attorneys, Sam Coffey and Kenneth Ferguson, demanded $750,000 to cover workers’ compensation insurance expenses.
Coffey said, “We weren’t asking for million of dollars. That kind of number would have given him a fighting chance.”
Ore’s attorneys also sated that he had been on track to make $125,000 in 2012, but his residual earning capacity was cut to $19,000 because of his injury. He was unable to work his normal full-time managerial job and was moved to customer-service positions in his company.
Expert witnesses testified that the ladder rivet had failed years earlier, but continued to be used. Coffey and Ferguson also showed that Ore has since faced painful ongoing medical care because of the injury.
The jury sided with Ore and returned with a verdict of $4.7 million to cover future loss of earning capacity, future medical care, lost earnings, past medical expenses, past non economic damages, future pain, and loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life.