Cooper & Schaffer Legal Verdicts

 

 Important Win For The Future Safety Of Many!

 

$ 900,000 Verdict in Deep Fryer Case

 

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400° Oil Burned Young Girl Severely!

 

  Two Philadelphia attorneys have prevailed in a deep fryer cord pullover case files against National Presto Industries after a young girl was seriously burned by 400  degree oil.

 

  According to attorneys, this is the first such case the well-known manufacturer has lost on a design defect theory.

 

The eight member jury in Osano v. National Presto Industries, tried before Judge Donald Smith in the superior court of New Jersey, awarded $900,000 to the injured child and her mother, Arlene Wood.

 

Plaintiff Alyssa Osano was 4-and-a-half years old when she pulled National Presto's GranPappy deep fryer over the edge of a kitchen counter, the plaintiff's trial brief states. The deep fryer is a six-cup deep fat fryer manufactured without and on/off switch or a detachable magnetic cord. These features the plaintiff's argued, would have reduced or eliminated the subject accident as well as the possibility of other cord pullover accidents.

 

  "The plaintiffs' contention was that it was defectively designed under New Jersey product liability law," said Brad Cooper of Cooper & Schaffer. "We had to show that there were practical and alternative feasible designs that would have reduced or eliminated the harm. The defense argued [that the design was] state-of-the-art and that it was reasonably safe."

 

 Cooper, who tried the case with partner Jeffrey D. Schaffer, said National Presto also asserted that the fryer was misused when Osano was injured.

   

The plaintiffs contended that any misuse was foreseeable and therefore, any warnings were insufficient and that the product should have been designed differently, "A defendant owes a duty to prevent injury caused by foreseeable misuse of [a] product," plaintiffs trial brief states.

 

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The plaintiffs' attorneys said they believe it was forensic engineer Steven Batterman who swayed the jury in their clients' favor by explaining an alternative design--the detachable magnetic cord --- without the aid of a model.

 

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  The plaintiffs' attorneys said they believe it was forensic engineer Steven Batterman who swayed the jury in their clients' favor by explaining an alternative design--the detachable magnetic cord --- without the aid of a model. Batterman also located other products that heated items to 200 degrees and featured detachable magnetic cords before the GranPappy was manufactured in 1994, Cooper said.

 

  According to Cooper, defense expert Lawrence Teinor also helped  his clients at trial.

 

  "It was revealed for the first time at trial that in 1989, seven years before our clients injury, [National Presto] had actually looked at the magnetic detachable cord in a different product," Cooper said. "That was the first time they acknowledged that they had seen it, felt it, touched it -- although they denied that they looked at it in connection with the deep fryer."

 

In addition to arguing that a detachable cord would have been preferable, the plaintiffs asserted that if the fryer had an on/off switch, the cord would have stayed in the electrical socket and not draped over the side of the counter, Cooper said.

 

  Ultimately, the Woodbury, New Jersey jury unanimously determined that the GranPappy fryer was defective in design, Cooper said. The jurors also found that the defective  proximately caused the subject accident. They did however, place 30% of the responsibility on the adult user who left the cord dangling from the counter.

 

  In terms of its' significance beyond Osano and her mother, Cooper said the case might alert people to the dangers of old fryers.

 

  "In 2001, Underwriters Laboratory demanded that when you make this deep fryer, it has to have a detachable magnetic cord," Cooper said. "Now that [the jury] found this design to be defective , maybe it will alert people or [result in recalls]".

 

  Cooper said National Presto did not make any significant offers before trial.

 

  Michael J. Plevyak of White & Williams represented National Presto. He could not be reached before press time.

 

  (Source: The Legal Intelligencer

Friday, October 4, 2002  

Jennifer Batchelor of the Legal Staff)

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