Niagara County Jury Awards $8.8 Million After Teen Loses Arm to Defective Post-Hole Digger

On October 2, 2004, Jessica Bowers was helping her stepfather dig holes for a backyard fence at a property in Niagara County. The equipment they used was a tractor-driven post-hole digger borrowed from a neighbor and grape farmer named Peter Smith. As Jessica stood near the machine, her jacket was caught by the digger's rotating driveline. She was pulled in before anyone could stop the machine. Her right arm was severed above the elbow. She also suffered fractures to her left scapula, left clavicle, and right humerus.

At the center of the case was a plastic safety shield designed to cover the driveline's exposed rotating components. Over years of regular use on Smith's farm, the shield had cracked and degraded to the point where Smith removed it entirely. Attorneys at Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria, led by John A. Collins, argued that the shield was inadequately engineered from the start: it was not durable enough to survive ordinary agricultural use and provided no realistic protection in the field. An independent mechanical engineer testified that the shield failed prematurely under normal conditions.

Defense counsel for the manufacturer CNH America LLC and distributor SMC Corporation argued the digger had been 'substantially modified' when Smith removed the shield, which should have cut off their liability. The jury rejected that framing. After trial in Niagara County Supreme Court, the jury found that the product was defectively designed and apportioned fault among the parties: CNH (the manufacturer) bore 35%, SMC (the distributor) 30%, and Smith as the owner 30%. The jury also assigned 3% to the operator and 2% to the retail seller, Niagara Frontier Equipment Sales.

Total damages came to just over $8.8 million. The breakdown included $138,653 in past medical costs, approximately $2.68 million for future medical expenses and prosthetics, $45,000 in past lost wages, $950,000 in future lost wages, $1 million for past pain and suffering, and $4 million for future pain and suffering.

CNH and SMC appealed. The Appellate Division, Fourth Department affirmed in 2012. The defendants then sought review by the New York Court of Appeals, which issued its decision on April 1, 2014, unanimously affirming the judgment without reduction. The court held that a manufacturer cannot escape liability simply because an owner stopped replacing a safety component that was deficient by design.