May, 1994

Trial Verdict:
Verdict in favor of the Plaintiffs with three million dollar ($3,000,000) damage award to Plaintiff John Ulrich; one hundred thousand dollar ($100,000) award to Plaintiff wife Louise Ulrich. My Motion for Assessment of Delay Damages, Plaintiffs seek to mold verdict to a total amount of $4,619,800.

Court and Docket No.:
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, October Term, 1988, No. 3968.

Judge:
The Honorable Victor J. DiNubile, Jr.

Type of Action:
Product liability based upon defective packaging of sulfuric acid.

Injuries:
Sulfuric acid burns to right arm, face, right leg and feet compromising nine percent of the total body; permanent disability of right forearm and restriction of use of the right arm and right leg; scarring.

Plaintiff's Attorneys:
Martin K. Brigham and Eunice F. Trevor, Galfand, Berger, Lurie, Brigham & March, Philadelphia.

Additional Comments:
On December 29, 1986, John Ulrich was severely burned on his right arm, face, right leg and foot by sulfuric acid that had been sold by Defendant Textile Chemical Company, Inc. to Mr. Ulrich's employer. Mr. Ulrich slipped and fell into sulfuric acid which had leaked from a large broken glass carboy, the packaging in which Textile Chemical Company had sold the acid.

The six and half gallons of concentrated corrosive sulfuric acid was packaged in glass and protected only with a styrofoam shell. Since the large carboy is intended for industrial use, Plaintiffs argued that the sulfuric acid should have been packed in smaller containers and the bottles wrapped in a "safety coating" which would minimize the risk of worker injury in the bottle broke.

At the time of sale of the sulfuric acid, the "safety coating" was commercially available with a 200 pound tensile strength that would have prevented the injuries. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the safety coating, Plaintiffs videotaped the impact testing of glass bottles, both coated and uncoated, at Drexel University under the direction of Dr. Elihu Grossman.

The treating physicians and therapist described the six hospitalizations, seven surgeries and years of occupational therapy that Mr. Ulrich endured in order to achieve a maximum recovery. Mr. Ulrich has a permanent impairment of the use of his right arm, (including sensory loss of the right forearm due to nerve damage) and restriction in the use of his right leg. Total medical expenses were in excess of $43,000. Loss of earnings and earning capacity exceeded $325,000.

Defendant Textile Chemical Company, a distributor of Industrial Chemicals, sued its suppliers that had pre-packaged the carboys of sulfuric acid: J. T. Baker and Allied Chemical Corporation. The Defendants argued that it was not foreseeable that a large piece of industrial equipment would fall on its glass carboys. They also argued that safety coating of the bottles would not be economically feasible. Representatives of the Defendant agreed during cross-examination that the total cost of repackaging the acid in smaller containers with safety coating would be $1.10 per week for the total annual consumption of sulfuric acid at the Plaintiff's employer.

Defendant's Attorneys:
Richard Masterson and William Dienna, Materson, Braunfeld, Himsworth and Maguire, Norristown, PA, for Defendant Textile Chemical Company, Inc.

Curt Cheyney and Don Bruch, Swartz, Campbell & Detweiler, Philadelphia for Additional Defendant Allied Chemical Corporation.

Auslin Hogan and Lynn Coughlin, White & Williams, Philadelphia for Additional Defendant J. T. Baker.

Plaintiffs' Liability Expert Witnesses:
Walter Stern, Wilmette, II., Packaging Expert; E. Pat McGuire, Bernardsville, NJ, Product Safety Expert; Elihu Grossman, Ph.D., Philadelphia, Chemical Engineer.

Plaintiffs' Damages Expert Witnesses:
R. Michael McClellon, M.D., Philadelphia, Treating Physician; Frederick A. DeClement, M.D., Philadelphia; Melanie Hodge, Brookhaven, PA, Rehabilitation; Robert Wolf, Ph.D., Cherry Hill, NJ, Economist.

Defendants' Liability Expert Witness:
Van Doran F. Douglas, Phillipsburg, NJ, Employee of J. T. Baker.

Defendants' Damages Expert Witnesses:
The Defendants contested disability through the testimony of Richard Kaplan whose entire physical examination of Mr. Ulrich was described in one sentence and from which he concluded there was no significant disability