Originally Posted By: gbeaumont
This post was automatically imported from our archived forum.
I thought you all might like to read this:
"Settlement for oven-tipping accident totals $2.1 million
By CORINA CURRY? Rockford Register Star
ROCKFORD ? A $425,000 settlement announced Monday brings the total amount that a Rockford girl will receive for injuries sustained in a 1997 oven-tipping accident to just over $2.1 million.
Attorneys for the Rockford Housing Authority, which managed the Concord Commons apartment where the accident took place, and the child?s legal defense team agreed to settle the case late Sunday night. Jury selection was set to begin Monday morning.
The settlement ends a four-year battle in which four entities agreed or were ordered to pay damages to the child and her family. In February, Delaware-based stove manufacturer White Consolidated Industries agreed to pay $675,000. The American Gas Association also was ordered to pay $25,000. Earlier this month, Rockford Housing Development Corp., the group that owns the Concord Commons housing project, agreed to pay $1 million.
Unique Russey was 2 years old when she opened the oven door in her mother?s Concord Commons apartment kitchen and climbed onto it. The range tipped over, spilling hot chicken grease onto Russey and causing second and third-degree burns. Now 9, Russey has potentially permanent injuries and scarring.
In 2000, attorneys for Russey and her mother, Thalassa Shipp, sued the manufacturing company and housing organizations. They argued that all of the parties created an unsafe environment and that anti-tip brackets that came with the oven should have been installed but were not.
?Ultimately, I think it was that pressure of knowing that we were going to go forward that resulted in the settlement,? said Larry Morrissey, one of Shipp?s attorneys.
?We are pleased that this case has come to an end, and we hope that no child and no family will ever have to go through this type of needless tragedy again,? Shipp said in a written statement.
?We?re glad it?s come to a satisfactory conclusion,? said RHA Deputy Director Steve Anderson. Anderson said all ovens in RHA property kitchens, including the 216 apartments at Concord Commons, now have some type of security device to prevent tipping."
Do you think that if this had been a private property that had been subject to a home inspection in the recent past that the home inspector would have been named in the action ??
I DO !!
BTW. I have had to answer C to the above question 
BTW II, thanks to Erby for posting this article in another forum.
Regards
Gerry
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Gerry Beaumont
NACHI Education Committee
e-mail : education@nachi.org
NACHI phone 484-429-5466
Inspection Depot Education
gbeaumont@inspectiondepot.com
"Education is a journey, not a destination"
