Springmeyer

Respondent Bruce Springmeyer, a mechanic with B. C. Lawson Drayage, Inc., was working on the engine in one of Lawson’s Ford trucks on April 13, 1992, with the hood up and the engine running, when a fan blade broke off from the engine and struck him in the right shoulder, severing his right arm from his body. Surgeries have reattached the arm, and restored some feeling and movement in the arm, but Mr. Springmeyer, who was right-handed, has lost the use of his right hand, has been unable to resume work, and lives with chronic severe pain from the accident.

Mr. Springmeyer and his wife, respondent Sandra Springmeyer, sued the manufacturer of the fan, Schwitzer, Inc., and the manufacturer of the truck, Ford Motor Company, for damages from the accident based on strict products liability for the fan’s defective design. They also sued Avis Rent A Car System, Inc., a former owner of the truck, for negligent failure to have the fan replaced in response to a Ford recall of these fans. A jury awarded economic damages of $1,400,279 and noneconomic damages of $2.5 million to Mr. Springmeyer (hereafter Springmeyer), and awarded $500,000 to Mrs. Springmeyer for loss of consortium. The…