A seven year old boy was playing in his driveway as a commercial landscaper mowed his lawn. Suddenly, the mower ran over a baseball on the lawn which became a projectile that struck the child in the head and fractured his skull. The boy required extensive surgery to repair the skull damage and suffered damage to his motor skills in his leg as well as cognitive problems.
Our claim involved the defective design of the commercial lawn mower, which allowed the operator to raise and lower the guard without ever leaving the seat. Our engineering expert indicated that this design violated the standards in the industry for commercial mower safety and the defective design was the direct cause of the injury to the boy. Finkelstein & Partners also claimed that the landscaper failed to police the lawn for objects before mowing. The case was settled at mediation which will pay the child the total certain amount of $4,087,077.00 over the course of his life. The case was handled by Managing Partner Andrew Finkelstein and Senior Trial Partner George Levy.