Legislative Update

H.R. 3509 Will Slam the Courthouse Door on Injured Workers

Legislation before Congress will harshly affect workers. H.R. 3509 eliminates workers' rights to hold manufacturers and sellers responsible when workers are severely injured by a defective product under these circumstances: All claims for personal injury and death are barred when the product is more than 12 years old - even though the product was designed to last much longer than 12 years.

Many items today - industrial machinery, tractors, construction equipment - are made to last longer than 12 years. H.R. 3509 will leave innocently injured workers and their families without a remedy when they are injured or killed by such a defective product.

Examples of injuries that would have no remedies under this proposed law:

  • A printing pressman's arm caught in a printing press. The printing press was manufactured in 1970s. In later years the manufacturer adds safeguards to the same model printing press, but does not notify prior owners of the machine's dangerous defect. By 1995, at least eight pressmen had their arms crushed or severed while operating the 1970s presses.
  • A Hydraulic molding machine manufactured more than 20 years earlier. Evidence revealed the machine was constructed without proper guarding devices which could have prevented a worker's hand from being caught, crushed and burned.
  • A crane made in 1953 collapsed on top of a worker. At trial, evidence showed the crane was negligently designed and manufactured. If enacted this law would bar these workers and their families from holding the manufacturers responsible for their unsafe products and eliminate any reason for them to remove older, unsafe products from the workplace since they would no longer be held responsible for any accidents or injuries their products cause simply because the product is older than 12 years.

    You can easily email your U.S. Representative now at www.house.gov/writerep and tell them you're opposed to H.R. 3509

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    Posted: April 11, 2006