Cavanaugh v. Skil Corp.
Supreme Court of New Jersey
751 A.2d 518 (N.J. 2000)
Cavanaugh (plaintiff) was injured when his circular saw's blade, still spinning after he released the trigger, caused the saw to move on its own across the floor and sever his toe; the saw's retractable blade guard, meant to cover the blade when not in use, failed to close, possibly due to sawdust or wood-chip jamming (though Skil, defendant, presented evidence Cavanaugh had wedged the guard open, which he denied). Cavanaugh's expert testified that a blade brake — a feature already used by Skil's competitors at the time — would have stopped the spinning blade immediately upon trigger release and prevented the injury, while Skil's own engineer testified the company had declined to add the feature after finding it might cause other kinds of injuries; a jury found the saw defectively designed and awarded Cavanaugh damages, and Skil appealed.
Whether a manufacturer may be held liable for a defectively designed product when the product lacked an available safety feature that would have prevented an injury arising from a reasonably foreseeable risk associated with the product's use.