Well, we guess Interlake Material Handling will think twice before appealing a jury verdict, and seeking a new trial, if it’s ever sued again. The new verdict wound up being nearly $2 million more than the first one.
In the retrial, a jury awarded $12.4 million to Leroy Price, a forklift operator who was paralyzed when shelves holding several thousand pounds of frozen food fell on him in a warehouse in 2001. Rice was 37 at the time of the accident.
That second verdict was $1.8 million more than the verdict back in September 2006 in the first trial, when a jury in Philadelphia awarded Rice only $10.6 million.
Interlake had appealed the first verdict, and the suit was sent back for a new trial.
During the retrial Interlake claimed that Price’s damage claims were excessive. Rice, in turn, maintained that his paralysis had worsened over the last three years. The jury seemed to agree, awarding him $1.8 million more than his first trial, namely $12.4 million.
Rice originally had filed suit several defendants, including Interlake, which makes shelving. He charged that the shelves that fell on him were not attached to the wall, and that only bolt held those shelves to the wall.
Before the first trial Rice settled with all the defendants for $3.4 million, except Interlake.
