HAYNEVILLE, Ala - A Lowndes County Circuit Court jury has awarded $10.5 million to a 22-year-old Alabama grocery store employee who lost the tip of his index finger while operating a meat saw with a slanted blade.
Attorney Jere Beasley contended the Hobart Corporation of Ohio knew its model 5700 Meat cutter was dangerous. He noted that the company, the only saw manufacturer that produces a slanted blade, has been sued on at least 25 other occasions for injuries to operators.
Beasley says the slanted blade unpredictably snatches meat and pulls it into the blade so fast operators do not have time to remove their hands before their fingers become entangled in the saw blade.
Scottie Scoggins was using the machine at the Hayneville Red & White Grocery Store where he worked when his hand was pulled into the saw blade, severing the first digit of his right index finger.
Beasley says, "Hobart had been informed by meat cutters, engineers and its own employees of the hazard and knew that the saw had injured many people prior to Mr. Scoggins. Yet the company wantonly failed to warn users of the danger or to recall the machine."
Beasley, of Beasley, Wilson, Allen, Main & Crow, of Montgomery, says Scoggins was awarded $510,000 in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.
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