Jury: maker should pay $1.5 million for selling standard tablesaw design
by Walter Olson on March 19, 2010
A Boston jury has awarded $1.5 million to a man whose fingers were injured by a tablesaw on the theory that it was defective for the saw to lack “flesh-detection” technology. According to the lawsuit, the inventor of the technology offered to sell it to tool companies a decade ago, but negotiations broke down and none made a deal; the inventor proceeded to launch his own line of saws, SawStop, incorporating the technology. “[Carlos] Osorio’s case is one of more than 50 lawsuits pending throughout the United States against the major table saw manufacturers for failure to adopt the technology.” [Boston Globe, Fine Woodworking] SawStop bills itself on one customer testimonial at its website as the “Rolls-Royce of table saws”, and appears to sell its saw at a premium of hundreds of dollars over ordinary table saws widely available at prices below $500. A commenter in the very active thread at Wood Magazine estimates the premium at $800-$1,000, and also lists some other reasons why many buyers might not welcome the jury’s edict.
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Tagged as: product liability
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
1 nevins 03.19.10 at 6:28 am
It is no longer an issue of whether saw manufacturers have this available, the customer’s have spoken. The plaintiff had every opportunity to buy the saw with the technology he desired, but he chose instead to pocket the dollars instead. No one put a gun to his head and made him buy the saw he chose.
” The safety feature was pitched to major saw manufacturers by Gass, but according to SawStop, licensing negotiations broke down and no agreements were reached.” So perhaps another theory is that the inventor of this device is also liable on the theory of greed. The negotiations could only have broken down if Mr. Gass was asking too high a licensing price for his already intrinsically expensive technology. Let’s make the inventors of new technology liable too for their failure to give away their labors for free.
2 Guy from LA (The State) 03.19.10 at 11:08 am
Woodworking is a hobby of mine. I bought a contractor saw last year for around $800. A similar SawStop saw is $1,600. For that money, I could get a saw with capabilities and features most hobbyist dream about. It would be comparable to making everyone buy a car that every safety feature ever invented regardless of cost. It would make the car much safer, but who could afford one?
(On a side note, the technology is very impressive. As the blade rips through a one inch thick piece of wood, how on earth does the saw know the tip of the blade just touched my, in comparison to the wood, extremely soft skin? Seriously, in test it will only nick a hot dog used to simulate a finger.)
3 Dennis N 03.19.10 at 12:03 pm
The Saw Stop technology relies on measuring tiny electrical currents. Your finger is more conductive than a 2×4. It stops the blade by driving an aluminum stop block up into the teeth, jamming it. The blade and the cartridge are ruined in the process, requiring about $175 to replace the pair, depending on the price of your blade. Not bad to save a finger, but the thing does have a significant false alarm rate. Wet wood or a wet pocket in dry wood can set off the brake, costing you some big bucks.
Needless to say, if you don’t have a spare cartridge and a spare blade in the drawer, you’re also unable to work.
It’s not at the top of my list for tools. I’d rather get a higher quality saw.
4 Guy from LA (The State) 03.19.10 at 1:29 pm
Dennis-Thanks for the education. I saw the price on them, knew they were WAY beyond my budget, and stopped reading. I have seen the videos on some of the woodworking websites. And I agree with you-I’d rather get the higher quality saw. For the same price I could get one with twice the HP and a huge table. I’m going that route.
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