A jury has found a man mostly liable and a table saw accessory maker only partially liable in a private home wood cutting accident that killed him. David Groves, then 65, was killed in December 2012 after a wood section he was cutting kicked back and impaled his abdomen. The defense argued Groves’ working area was unsafe. And the jury agreed: it found accessory maker Kreg Enterprises Inc. liable due to a lack of warnings and instructions accompanying its Featherboard accessory, but found Groves 80 percent liable and Kreg 20 percent. The jury awarded Groves’ estate $652,000, which would have been reduced to $130,400 for comparative negligence. But during jury deliberations a confidential high/low agreement was reached between the parties.
Case: Estate of Groves v. Kreg Enterprises
