Baccelleri v. Hyster Co.

The jury returned a verdict for the defendant in this products liability action brought to recover damages for injuries plaintiff incurred when a forklift truck manufactured by the defendant backed over the plaintiff’s legs. Plaintiff appeals and we reverse.

Plaintiff worked as a checker on the docks in Portland. He was checking thirty-foot-long bundles of angle iron which had been unloaded from a ship and placed on the dock by the forklift operator. Plaintiff was kneeling down checking a bundle which was between six to twenty feet from the forklift. The forklift operator had just deposited…