Non-Suit x3 – Allegedly Defective Safety Glasses

Rodriguez v. American Optical Supply.  (Rancho Cucamonga, CA)

Plaintiff was blinded in one eye when, he says, a small bit of carbide detached from a spinning table saw blade and hit him at high speed.  Plaintiff claimed the projectile penetrated Defendant’s safety glasses, and he produced a fractured glasses frame to prove his case.  The alleged penetrated or shattered lens was never found.

Defendant constructed a compressed air gun that could fire a bit of carbide at the calculated speed the speed the piece would have come off the saw blade.  The gun could not break the Lexan lenses of the safety glasses or break its frames.  Defendant could demonstrate that the pattern of fractures in the glasses frame provided by Plaintiff could be reproduced, exactly, by putting a pair on the ground and stomping on them.  The Defense theory was that Plaintiff was wearing no safety glasses in violation of his employer’s policies but came up with this explanation after his injury.  Interestingly, Plaintiff was working in the shop of the Alad Ladder Company, namesake of the leading cases in California on successor corporate liability.

The court gave the Plaintiff three opening statements, and the defense one.  After three non-suits plaintiff dismissed for a waiver of costs.