Plaintiff was working on a film production and was sitting in a crane basket manufactured by the Defendant when a key support structure broke due to materials failure.  Defendant claimed that the crane was not defective, and instead that the accident was caused by the independent rental company's failure to properly set up, position, and secure the craine.  Defendant also claimed that Plaintiff and his cameraman overloaded the crane, contributing to the failure.

As a result of the accident, Plaintiff suffered a compound fracture of the femur and shattered elbow requiring surgical repair, lumbar disc herniation with future fusion recommended, a closed head injury with residual cognitive deficits, and permanent disabilities precluding Plaintiff from returning to work.

Defendant did not dispute the orthopedic injuries but asserted that neuropsychological testing by its expert did not support the degree of cognitive residuals claimed by Plaintiff. Defendant also claimed Plaintiff was physically able to return to work, and not precluded by either his orthopedic residuals or claimed neuropsychiatrict injuries from doing so.

In litigation, Plaintiff was able to prove that the crane had design and manufacturing defects which caused the crane to be inherently unstable, putting excessive weight on a poorly manufactured support structure bound to brake under such strain.  Plaintiff's treating physicians rejected the conclusions of the hired experts of Defendant, supporting Plaintiff's diagnoses of, among other things, PTSD as a result of the accident and further rejected the notion that Plaintiff would ever return to work in the same capacity as prior to the accident.

Summary

When a product fails, the manufacturer often blames everyone but itself. After a crane basket collapsed and sent a top Hollywood director of photography to the ground, the maker insisted the rental company set it up wrong and that our client had overloaded it—anything but its own design. Yuhl Carr proved the crane was inherently unstable, with design and manufacturing defects that doomed a poorly built support structure to fail, and secured a $5,000,000 settlement for the fractures, brain injury, and PTSD that ended his career. Strict products liability cases turn on expert proof that a defect, not the user, caused the harm. If you've been seriously injured by a defective or dangerous product, contact Yuhl Carr for a free and confidential consultation.