IADC Board member Ken Meyer, Partner at McCarter & English, LLP in Newark, NJ, together with Associate, Desiree L. Grace, obtained a defense verdict for defendants, Terex Corp., a Connecticut entity, and Terex Advance Mixer, an Indiana entity, in a product liability case in which the plaintiff, who suffered a compound leg fracture and later had the leg amputated, alleged that a front-discharge ready-mix cement truck was defectively designed.
In 2010, plaintiff, who drove the Terex truck for work, was filling the truck’s water tank in preparation for a cement delivery when he slipped on ice on a concrete platform that was parallel to the truck. As he fell to the ground, his leg went through the truck’s step, resulting in compound fractures that failed to heal over eighteen months, despite the use of three external fixators, and ultimately resulted in a below the knee amputation. At trial, plaintiff alleged two defects: the truck did not have a railing to keep plaintiff from falling, and the truck’s sight gauge for measuring the water fill level of the water tank was on the side opposite from the fill spout, resulting in water spillage and ice formation.
Following seven days of trial, and 14 minutes of deliberation, an Ocean County, New Jersey, Superior Court jury returned a defense verdict.