Our client, who we will call Doug, was cleaning the BBQ that he bought from a National Retailer one night. After about 20 seconds of cleaning the BBQ, some metal from the BBQ flew up into his eye. He went to the hospital that night and medical care providers removed a piece of metal from his eye. Another piece of metal would eventually be removed from his eye at another time. Doug’ vision deteriorated progressively from the time of the injury until he could only just see light and dark out of the injured eye.
Lawsuit and Result
After consulting with our firm, we sued the National Retailer and the manufacturer of the BBQ on Doug’s behalf. Discovery disclosed that there was no testing of the BBQ grate before it was put on the market for sale. Both companies refused to believe that they caused the eye damage and claimed that his functional blindness in the injured eye was a pre-existing condition, even though he did not have any vision problems until after the injury.
After strong representation by our firm and vigilant preparation for the trial process, the companies offered a generous settlement to Doug, which he accepted. Although he will likely never see properly in his eye again, he was very happy with the results of our work.
PLEASE NOTE: Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results and that the amount recovered and other litigation outcomes will vary according to the facts in individual cases.