PRODUCTS LIABILITY

A Defendant failed to properly maintain a hand held grinding machine which he allowed the victim to use while helping defendant with repairs around defendant’s home. As the victim went to use the grinder, the grinding wheel broke into several pieces, at least one of which struck him in the groin, knocking him to the ground, and causing serious injury and debilitating pain.
The cause of was a failure of a component part of the grinder. The grinder in question, an, air driven, high speed, hand held model consists of three primary components, the base unit itself, made of metal, a fiberglass and a “backing plate” to which a composite stone/paper grinding wheel is attached.  When fully assembled, the grinding wheel covers the backing plate, making it impossible to see, without taking the assembly apart, as would be done when replacing the grinding wheel. 

Unknown to the victim, the backing plate on the grinder was broken and had a piece missing from it. The defendant knew this, and testified that the grinder had been like that for some time. He did not tell the victim about the defect, which the manufactures of the component parts all stress is a major safety issue in the use of a grinder.