Moyer v. United Dominion Industries, Inc.

OPINION OF THE COURT

FUENTES, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs are five factory workers who allege serious and permanent hand injuries after years of using defendant’s swager, a machine used to form metal. Plaintiffs claim that the swager was defectively designed because it emitted excessive vibration, and that the defendant failed to warn them of the vibration risk.

Before trial, and in accordance with Pennsylvania law, the District Court conducted a risk-utility analysis and determined, as a threshold matter, that the swager was “unreasonably dangerous.” After a two-week jury trial on the design…