By Shannon Duffy
U.S. Courthouse Correspondent

A federal jury yesterday awarded $3 million to a woman who suffered severe burns on her left hand in an industrial accident that resulted in partial amputation of two fingers.

Plaintiff’s attorney A. Roy DeCaro of Raynes McCarty Binder Ross & Mundy said the trial was perhaps the shortest in his career. Opening statements, witnesses and closing arguments were all heard on Monday afternoon and the jury deliberated a total of 90 minutes, rendering its verdict Tuesday morning.

Originally, DeCaro said, he was prepared to present a much more complicated products liability case with expert witnesses who would have testified about alleged design defects in a factory machine.

But just last week, the case became a lot simpler when the defense conceded liability. As a result, he said, the trial focused only on damages.

Plaintiff Margaret Alling was working at Chester County Container Corp. In November 1998 when she was assigned to clean a blow mold machine—a device used to make translucent, plastic milk bottles.

The machine, which is manufactured by Hoover Universal Inc., must be kept hot during cleaning, but all internal parts are designed to stop moving when a worker opens the safety door.

Alling testified that she inadvertently hit the emergency stop switch which caused a metal plate to snap forward, trapping her hand in the 350-degree machine for nearly five minutes.

Although doctors tried to save her fingers, the fourth-degree burns were too severe and an amputation of parts of her index and middle finger on her left hand was performed about a month after the accident.

DeCaro said the design of the machine has been changed to compensate for the problem, but that the unit at Alling’s workplace was never fitted with the additional safety features.

Alling testified that the accident caused her to stop working for six months. She now works as a chef.

DeCaro, who tried the case along with his partner, David Binder, said Hoover Universal had offered just $75,000 to settle the case prior to trial.

“I don’t think the company appreciated the significance of her injuries,” DeCaro said.

In his closing argument, DeCaro stressed that the injury continues to affect Alling by compromising her ability to do things the jurors might take for granted.

He also said she continues to be self-conscious about her disfigurement, forgoing jewelry and often trying to hide her hand from view.

“It’s the first thing she sees when she wakes up in the morning and it’s the last ting she sees before she goes to bed at night,” DeCaro said in his closing.

Hoover Universal was represented by attorney Jeffrey B. Whitt of Sachnoff Weaver in Chicago with Gregory Kelley Kelly McLaughlin & Foster as local counsel.