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Wonderful - Man sues Ryobi and HD because he cut himself on the saw

7K views 94 replies 62 participants last post by  Druid 
#1 ·
Wonderful - Man sues Ryobi and HD because he cut himself on the saw

Not sure who all heard the news for today, but a lawsuit was won against Ryobi for not incorporating blade stop technology on their saw. This guy apparently fed his hand through the tablesaw and Ryobi is to blame for not protecting him. I hope this gets overturned. I believe blade stop is a good thing to have available but there is a reason why I do not have a SawStop which has to do with cost. If this goes through, there are going to be a ton of lawsuits filed against many saw manufacturer who have not incorporated the device due to cost restraints.

Here is the article...

David
 
#7 ·
Once had an instructor who served as a safety expert on a trial against craftsman. Guy using a radial arm saw pulls the carriage all the way forward and then feeds the saw back into the workpiece while holding the piece with one arm across the path of the saw. Craftsman had diagrams and pictures in the manual on how to operate the machine but lost the case because it was not labeled on the machine itself. Safety devices are great if you know how to run the machines correctly in the first place.

HK
 
#9 ·
Your comment made me grin David. Sue the pencil manufacturer because the lines are not straight or correct? Surely those bad cuts are not my fault… :)

I sit here with a few scabs due to my stupidity with a flush cut japanese saw and I know have a scroll saw stand with a couple extra holes in it. My faults and flaws are the true original items in my work. I treasure them and I am not about to give credit for them to anyone else :)
 
#12 ·
You mean I could buy more tools if I sued and won for all the little cuts and scratches I have????
I could bite the hand that feeds my woodworking addiction!
Some people need to take personal responsibility for their own stupidity!
As Shakespeare said in Richard III - first we kill all the lawyers !!
Maybe you should not be able to turn on a tool until you have read the manual - we could put a computer chip in there and you would have to recite the manual to the chip… this could get really crazy!!
 
#13 ·
A young man (18)that lives down the street is always wanting to help out in the shop. I wont let him use any power tools for fear of something like this happening. Lawsuits like this allow people to act reckless and irresponsible and the rest of us has to pay for it
 
#14 ·
It kind of reminds me of the old Family Circus comic - when asked "who broke the vase?" is was always that rascal Not Me. Woodworking with power tools is a dangerous hobby - if the risk is too much for someone, then they should:
A. Find another hobby - stamp collecting maybe (but don't sue when you get a paper cut)
B. Switch to hand tools - remember, sharp part of the tool towards the wood, not your hand
C. Get a Sawstop - hell, Ryobi should counter-sue - obviously, he knew that the Sawstop technology was out there, but bought a saw without it anyway - sounds like criminal negligance to me.

Joking aside, I do feel bad that he was injured, but I cannot agree with the lawsuit - after all, it's a poor craftsman indeed who blames the tools.
 
#16 ·
"... an expert witness for the defense acknowledged that if the saw had the flesh detection technology, it would have created a 1/8-inch deep cut on one finger …" Yeah, but it's not that the technology wasn't available, he chose not to use it.

Jury trials! I know a woman who used to be a court clerk. She always said if you are guilty, do not waive your right to a jury trial because you can convince a jury of anything.
 
#17 ·
I did read that article on the Woodwhisperer site yesterday morning,
later on the afternoon, one of my friends came over to finish a double dog house (double because it's made for 2 rottweiler's). He wanted it to start using my power tools….... I didn't even let him use my tape measure, :)
 
#18 ·
the US is lawsuit-happy which is the reason for all this ridiculous lawsuits, like this one, and the old-lady-mcdonnald's-hot-coffee case a few years back… this is 50% people trying to get rich instantly, and 50% having too many lawyers around that are fishing for such cases in which they have a chance of getting extra quick cash, and recognition since most large companies would rather make a deal then take it to court… this is society's doing. for better? for worse? I wouldn't know.

as much as I think sawstop technology is great - using the fact that it exists in a case against another company is somewhat unethical - but than again - these are lawyers we're talking about , where ethics is still only optional.
 
#21 ·
I'm not bashing Ryobi. I am saying that if he bought a Ryobi, he probably wouldn't have spent the extra $ that would be required for sawstop technology. I'll bet this will get reversed just like the McDonald's hot coffee verdict was. The key is that his life will now be tied up in the courts and he'lll be out lawyer fees. One person will make money off this, I just don't think it will be the plaintiff.
 
#22 ·
What everyone else said!!

Ellen stated: 'Some people need to take personal responsibility for their own stupidity!

My co-Inspector stated one day….'there's no cure for stupid!'

'What else is there to say????
 
#24 ·
I just wanted to comment on the link that was posted pointing to a faulty radial arm saw that Ryobi recalled. This was not the saw. Link to the actual court document can be found here. According to the legal document, the saw was a portable ten inch tablesaw. The lawsuit was due to Ryobi not adopting blade stop technology. The suit had no claims against faulty blade guards, production problems with unstable blades, or any of those types of items. If that were the case, I would be in full support of a lawsuit. This is not faulty equipment but a short circuit in the gray matter…

David
 
#25 ·
I actually got a lawyer after my accident to sue Stanford University for putting my finger back on after I did such a nice job of amputating it. The lawyer said the hospitals have bulletproof forms that I signed while I was doped up on pain killers. He suggested I sue Delta and Woodcraft. We thanked him and said we would no longer be needing his services. This left me high and dry for the six figure medical bill coming my way. The day I won the lottery was the day that Stanford sent me a letter saying my bill had been excused. Whew!

The guy suing is a total scumbag with nothing but the almighty dollar in mind. He wants to profit off of his own negligence and of course they're going for the deepest pockets they can find. I hope he not only loses, but has to reimburse the defendants for court costs. These kind of torts are why our legal system is so dysfunctional.

I lost a lawsuit in my 20's because the person who ran a red light and t-boned me, destroying my car, was a cute little blonde who cried on the stand, and I was the big mean guy who made her cry. Nobody seemed concerned that her stupidity almost made me have to file bankruptcy. You might as well just roll the dice when you go to court.
 
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