$5.1 Million Verdict for Man Who Lost His Hand to an Unguarded Craftsman Radial Arm Saw

Henry Dendy was using a Craftsman radial arm saw sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. when the unguarded blade contacted his hand, severing it. The saw was manufactured by Emerson Electric. His hand was surgically reattached, but the injury was severe and permanent.

Dendy retained Robert Cartwright Jr. of The Cartwright Law Firm. Cartwright sued both Sears, as the retailer, and Emerson Electric, as the manufacturer, alleging that the saw was defective because it lacked a lower blade guard and carried inadequate warnings. Sears and Emerson had successfully defended roughly 25 prior cases of this type without ever offering a settlement.

Building the case took years. Cartwright gathered records documenting hundreds of injury incidents tied to the same product line. He also commissioned video simulations demonstrating how a properly designed blade guard would have kept the blade from contacting a user's hand, giving jurors a concrete picture of what the companies had omitted from their design.

After nine years of litigation, a San Francisco jury returned a verdict of $5.1 million in Dendy's favor. Sears and Emerson appealed, but the California Court of Appeal affirmed the verdict. Cartwright's work on the case earned him a finalist nomination for the Trial Lawyer of the Year award from Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

Beyond the courtroom, the verdict contributed to regulatory momentum. In November 2000 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Emerson Tool Co. announced a recall of approximately 3.7 million Craftsman 8-, 8.25-, 9-, and 10-inch radial arm saws with model numbers beginning with 113, sold through Sears stores and catalogs from 1958 through 1995. The companies offered owners a free blade-guard retrofit kit or, for older models that could not accept the new guard, a $100 payment for return of the saw carriage.