Verdict favours the defendants. PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

A Kanawha County Circuit Court jury has returned a verdict in favour of defendants Crown Equipment Corp and Jefferds Corp in a case stemming from a 2002 forklift accident.

The jury in Charleston determined that the Crown forklift was not defective at the time of its manufacturing and that plaintiff Jeremiah Morris was not entitled to an award. Doctors amputated Morris's lower left leg following the accident at an Alcoa Inc factory in Virginia.

Attorneys for Morris contended during the products liability trial from 15 January to 2 February that the forklift should have had a door to confine the driver.

The defendants maintained that federal regulatory agencies have rejected the theory that a forklift should have a door.

Crown is based in New Bremen, Ohio and forklift distributor Jefferds, also operating as Homestead Material Handling, has an operation in St Albans, West Virginia.

The case has a twisted history.

Judge Tod Kaufman in the Kanawha County court dismissed the case initially in 2004 because of a West Virginia law stating that circumstances leading to the litigation needed to have occurred in West Virginia. In 2006, the state Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional and enabled Morris to continue with his case.

West Virginia legislators revised the venue law giving latitude to judges on where a case should be heard. At that point, attorneys for defendants Crown and Jefferds appealed unsuccessfully to the US Supreme Court, which declined an opportunity to review the matter.