What started out as a prank involving a few family members and a portable toilet ended with one man paralyzed from the shoulders down and a manufacturer on the hook for part of a $5 million court settlement. Why?
Donald Adams, III was on a camping trip with two of his cousins-in-law, Gerald Grater and Barry Weller. The group was staying at a lodge that didn’t have any indoor plumbing.
While Adams was using a portable toilet located near the campsite, his two cousins-in-law decided to play a prank on him.
They backed their truck up against the door to trap Adams inside. Then they took things a little further and proceeded to bang on and shake the toilet. However, while all of this was going on, they accidentally tipped over the portable toilet.
Adams landed on his neck, which caused several cervical fractures. As a result of his injuries Adams was rendered quadriplegic.
Medical experts have ruled that Adams’ injuries are likely permanent.
According to The Legal Intelligencer, the cost of covering Adam’s lifelong medical needs is likely in the neighborhood of $6 million, but could be as high as $10 million.
Picked multiple targets
Adams and his family filed suit against a number of different targets.
Obviously his two cousins-in-law whose dumb prank got out of hand were named as defendants.
But it didn’t end there.
The man who installed the portable toilet as well as the company which manufactured it, Poly-San, were also dragged into the legal mix.
Why?
According to Adams, Poly-San had a hand in his injuries because it failed to provide spikes which could be used to secure the toilet to the ground. The spikes weren’t provided even though the base of the unit had holes in it designed for them.
On top of that, Adams also questioned whether the toilet was designed and manufactured in the safest way possible.
Adams called the base of the toilet in which he was inured “excessively light.” The base was made of plastic and weighed roughly 40 pounds.
He alleged that because of this, the toilet had a higher center of gravity than it should, which made it vulnerable to being tipped over.
Apparently, Poly-San manufactured and sold a heavier base, which weighed around 110-130 pounds. This would have made the unit less prone to tipping, although it cost double the price of the lighter model.
The man who installed the portable toilet was roped into the lawsuit for putting it in an unsafe location – on a hill at a 14-degree angle and propped up with wood to make it appear more level.
Tried to shift blame to pranksters
In their defense, the manufacturer and the installer teamed up and looked to shift the entirety of the blame on Adams’ two cousins — after all, it was their prank which led to his injuries.
The defense argued the unit was pushed over by Weller and that this occurred while it was in a rocking motion due to being hit by Grater’s truck. Those actions, the manufacturer and the installer, felt were directly to blame for Adams’ injuries.
As part of their defense, the pair relied on a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in the case of Reott v. Asia.
That case involved a pair of brothers, one of whom was injured when the tree stand he was trying to install fell to the ground. The man had been attempting to “set the stand” into place by jumping on it. This caused a strap to break, resulting in the fall.
In that case, the court ruled in favor of the manufacturer. It felt that “highly reckless” behavior on the part of a customer or person using a product is a perfectly acceptable defense against a product liability suit.
Manufacturer pays up
Eventually, all four parties – Poly-San, the portable toilet’s installer and the two cousins-in-law – agreed to settle out of court, rather than drag out the legal battle any longer – and risk paying out a higher total should a jury decide on the higher end of the $6-10 million range.
They agreed on the total of $5 million. The responsibility for paying off that sum will be divided among each of them, although what the actual split will look like hasn’t been released.
Can’t leave safety to chance
The lesson in this for companies? You can’t count on someone else to make your product safe. In this case, maybe the manufacturer assumed the installer would use spikes of his own – or would at least know better than to put a portable toilet on a hill. Or that no one would hit it with a truck as a joke.
But it didn’t work out that way. That’s why it’s absolutely critical to do everything you can to make sure a product is as safe as possible when it leaves your hands.
You never know what will happen to it from there.
What do you think of the company’s decision in this case? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
