$8.3 million verdict when worker falls as he tries to escape runaway construction hoist. San Francisco County.

Facts and Background

• Facts and Background:

  On Dec. 27, 2005, plaintiff Robert Kammerer, 39, a construction hoist operator, was injured while operating an Alimak Scando 4000 construction hoist at the San Mateo Library jobsite. Plaintiff claimed that as he was transporting a co-employee to the roof, the hoist malfunctioned and would not respond to input from the operator.

  Unbeknownst to plaintiff, an electric component within the hoist had short-circuited, rendering the manual controls and safety interlock system inoperable. The electrical failure also rendered the high and low limit switches, door interlock switch and stop button inoperable. The hoist climbed upwards out-of-control. The hoist was equipped with a mechanical lever that acted as a manual shut-off to control the main power. Plaintiff claimed he pulled the lever, but the hoist continued climbing. (Per defense counsel, plaintiff could not actually recall whether he pulled this particular lever.)

  Finally, plaintiff opened the hoist gate as the machine passed the roof landing. Opening the door did not cut off power as it was supposed to. Plaintiff feared the hoist was going to come off of the mast and so he attempted to exit the moving hoist. He then fell, roughly 50 feet, landing on the concrete below. The hoist continued upward until it hit the top of the mast and stopped. Plaintiff's co-employee, who remained in the hoist, did not sustain any physical injuries.

• Plaintiff's Contentions:

  That the hoist's electrical circuitry violated American National Standards Institute requirements that existed when the hoist was manufactured in 1971. That as early as 1963, ANSI required a backup electric circuit breaker to prevent just this type of problem in the event of a failure.

  That defendant was liable for a design defect under both the risk-benefit and consumer-expectation test. The cost of adding an additional electrical component was minimal and there was no risk in doing so. Moreover, an ordinary consumer, like Kammerer, would expect the hoist to stop when the stop button was depressed.

  That Alimak was negligent in failing to inform owners that the design of the mechanical power lever had been changed in subsequent models of the hoist. Alimak had issued a service message but could not prove that the message had been delivered to its customers.

  That prior to the jury trial, Alimak Hek AB denied manufacturing the subject hoist; Alimak claimed that the hoist was manufactured by Linden-Alimak AB, which was a different company. The court ruled against this claim prior to trial (see notes).

• Defendant's Contentions:

  That there was no negligence or design defect attributable to Alimak.

  That per expert for ANSI, who serves on the ANSI committee,  the ANSI standards referenced by plaintiff did not apply to the SCANDO 4000 and even if they did, the SCANDO 4000 met them by inclusion of the main power lever. 

  That plaintiff's injuries were caused by his own negligence along with the negligence of his employer, Sheedy Inc. That the electrical component failed because Sheedy utilized non-original equipment manufacturer repair parts and failed to perform maintenance as specified in the SCANDO 4000 manual. The operation manual instructed owners and operators to inspect the  electrical component every 400 hours. The last inspection, according to Sheedy's maintenance documents, occurred more than two years before the incident. The component that failed had not been replaced in over three years. Defense's mechanical engineering expert testified that Sheedy should have modernized the 33-year-old hoist to bring it into compliance with current Cal-OSHA guidelines. This expert further testified that Sheedy failed to adequately train plaintiff and had it done so, his injuries would have been avoided entirely because he would have understood that the hoist could never come off the top of the mast.

  That per plaintiff's supervisor at Sheedy, plaintiff had loosened the bolt on the final limit switch, which made it inoperable in turning off power to the motors. That this was said to have been done because the final limit switch was automatically engaged every day when the car went below the final limit, due to a problem with the brake, which required plaintiff to loosen the bolt each time to get it powered up again. This process was said to take 15-30 minutes each time, which was too long a delay for contractors who needed the elevator to be in service at all times.

  That the the hoist was manufactured by Linden-Alimak in 1971 in Skelleftea, Sweden.

  The only remaining defendant at time of trial was Alimak Hek HB, which is a different company than Linden-Alimak.