What really happened to Osorio + Sawstop

[Mr__Bill]

Or we could put Toyota gas pedals as on/off switched on our table saws!

ROTFLMAO

Bill

[BobSch]

I'm surprised OSHA didn't come down on his employer like a ton of bricks.

[jackellis]

I find this pretty sickening. Common sense says the lawyers don't have a case, unless...oops, better not go there. While I think the saw manufacturers blew a chance to make a safer product, any remaining respect I might have had for Gass and his invention have evaporated.

It's insane and unjust on the jury's part to award damages when the operator clearly misused the tool. It's intellectually dishonest for Gass to exploit this accident.

I hope for the sake of folks who depend on the safety features of a SawStop that it never fails. If one does, however, I am going to thoroughly enjoy watching Gass explain his way out of culpability. All it takes is one careless moment in the manufacturing process...

[Pappy]

I didn't read the possibly offensive comments about the plaintiff but, regardless of what they were, there were not needed. Gross Stupidity at this level knows no ethnic boundaries!

Judges need to come down with some common sense. "You, in the suit, the one that thinks you're a lawyer. Get your idiot client and get the HE** out of my courtroom before I lock both of you up for wasting my time!"

[Richard in Smithville]

I think the next person injured should sue Sawstop with the idea that if it was cheaper, he/she would have bought one and not been hurt! It makes as much sense as this suit.

[natausch]

Consider how lucky he is to have been using a cheap Ryobi.

If he had been using a SawStop the significantly stronger motor would have launched the piece of flooring right into his chest well before his fingers flew into the blade after he tried to force it into a bogged down blade. Don't say the riving knife would have prevented that because anything that could have been removed from this saw had been torn away, including the stand.

Even if this was a genuine accident I still don't feel OWT is responsible.The careless disregard for safety by him and his employer were begging for an injury.

The good news is that this will be repealed in appellate court so fast it will make your head spin.

[herb fellows]

I blame his boss r for even allowing the use of the saw. 1,on the floor,2, no guards, 3 inexperienced operator, Thats who should be getting sued(and probably will by Ryobi I hope). But I still think Gass is involved in this to further his own agenda.

Plus one on that! From the facts we do have, it certainly looks like the boss/company he was working for is liable. I would absolutely love to read the transcript of this trial, I hope someone buys it and publishes it.
Hey. I think it's 8 cents a page, wanna chip in:-)?

[Rich P]

Several years ago I purchased a large amount of ipe from a good local firm and the owner cut my wife a good deal on some mangaris chairs. I chatted with him about his source which was in Indonesia. Guess what...all of the "factory" workers walk around in flip-flops while machinery is cutting stuff that makes red oak look like pine. When these folks come over here, they bring that "work ethic" with them and when they get hurt they find out they are in a "tort rich" environment. Meantime we are shutting down high school shops where some of the kids in our society may properly belong (after all, how many brain surgeons do we need?) so we are missing out on a really valuable set of skills and bringing in kids who have never be instructed on how these powerful machines work...only so they can find some (excuse my French) slime bag legal scheme to make them millions! I agree with Shakespere..."First thing we do is...." No, after all the recent physical violence about health care I can't even quote the most eloquent person to ever speak our language. Sad.

[LinuxRandal]

Good to see some of my questions answered. Now according to this, he was learning English as well. That means, he may not have even been ABLE to read and UNDERSTAND the owners/SAFETY manual. That would have been a major factor in the juries mind, IMHO.

My apologies if anyone thought I was attempting to insult someone new or visiting to this country.

My intent was, even if he speaks a language that the owners manual is written in, how accurately was it translated? (some things don't translate well) Also, did his employer, make sure he UNDERSTOOD safe operations (language barrier there)?
Again, I am sorry if my comments offended.

[jackellis]

One of the minor drawbacks of living near Reno is having to sit through TV ads by tort lawyers. My wife has had to physically restrain me a couple of times, else we'd be down one TV.

[phi1l]

Several years ago I purchased a large amount of ipe from a good local firm and the owner cut my wife a good deal on some mangaris chairs. I chatted with him about his source which was in Indonesia. Guess what...all of the "factory" workers walk around in flip-flops while machinery is cutting stuff that makes red oak look like pine. When these folks come over here, they bring that "work ethic" with them and when they get hurt they find out they are in a "tort rich" environment. Meantime we are shutting down high school shops where some of the kids in our society may properly belong (after all, how many brain surgeons do we need?) so we are missing out on a really valuable set of skills and bringing in kids who have never be instructed on how these powerful machines work...only so they can find some (excuse my French) slime bag legal scheme to make them millions! I agree with Shakespere..."First thing we do is...." No, after all the recent physical violence about health care I can't even quote the most eloquent person to ever speak our language. Sad.

Sadly, I expect that anyone with relevant skills would be considered over qualified for the job, & need to be paid more than the going rate for that type of work.

[gsmittle]

Judges need to come down with some common sense. "You, in the suit, the one that thinks you're a lawyer. Get your idiot client and get the HE** out of my courtroom before I lock both of you up for wasting my time!"

I have a very good friend that is a judge and I recall him telling me about the time he said pretty much those exact words.

He is extremely fair, and tolerates NO foolishness in his court. Sometimes I sit in just to be entertained.

g.

[germdoc]

I am going to take a contrary position, because, well, I'm contrary sometimes. So my mamma always said.

I am going to defend lawsuits, even borderline frivolous ones, because they get results. We see this is the medical field, where threat of lawsuits DOES spur innovation and improvement. (Contrary to what is often said, the legal costs are a tiny fraction of the total cost of care.) More to the point, if you come in the hospital and an infection is prevented, for instance, do you care if it's the altruism of the doctor or the threat of a lawsuit that brings that about?

While we all agree in an ideal world doctors and manufacturers would take patient and user safety into account and innovate accordingly, we don't live in an ideal world. In my experience from the medicolegal side of things, courts are usually able to sort out the real issues from the totally frivolous ones, which usually don't make it to court because taking a tort case to court costs a law firm out of pocket.

BTW, I heard a prominent libertarian politician make exactly this point years ago arguing against government regulation, saying that the threat of lawsuits would spur companies to act for the common good.

[Stytooner]

Yeah! No! You can't bundle the medical field with that of machinery. People expect to pay high costs for medical bills. Otherwise our doctors would be driving VW's instead of BMW's.
The saw being provided had no correlation to this guys injuries. He would have gotten injured, no matter the saw make. Consider he modified it tremendously from what the maker intended. Could a person that modifies a prescription sue the doctor? Yeah and even likely, but that still doesn't make it at all correct.
This is my whole point in this. They are suing the wrong entity. A suit for this should not even exist.

[BrazosJake]

I do hope OWT appeals and gets some relief. This one is right up there the the McDonalds coffee.

I dunno about you guys, but every one of my digits are priceless. Besides, Osorio will be lucky to see 1/2 of that $1.5M after the bloodsucking parasites get their cut (and that's not a comment on ethnicity, lawyers were not born as such).