Man awarded $2.3M in Bowflex suit

An Obion County jury has awarded a Union City man and his wife $2.3 million in damages after he was injured by his Bowflex weight system, according to a news release from the Hill-Boren law firm.
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Jim Warner, 58, bought a Bowflex Power Pro weight system in 2000. In 2002, he was working out on the machine when the back bench snapped and threw his head down and forward, causing a herniated disc in his neck, the release states.

It was later learned that the backboard bench on the machine was made of thin plywood covered in foam. Warner had surgery but still has severe nerve damage, causing decreased use of his right arm, the release said.

"As a result of his chronic pain, he is going to have to be on a high dose of narcotic medication for the rest of his life, which affects his mental ability and daily activities to the point that he can no longer work,'' the release said.

At trial it was revealed that Bowflex was aware for more than a year that the benches were failing and causing severe injury, the release said. Rather than stopping the sales, Bowflex continued to market, manufacture and sell the defective products, the release states.

Attorney Jeff Boyd, who represented Warner and his wife Angie, said he hopes the award sends a message to product manufacturers.

"If product manufacturers are going to send defective products into Tennessee and they choose to sell products that they know are defective, they need to understand that a reasonable jury will punish them for their bad conduct,'' Boyd said Friday.

Two years after Warner's injury, Bowflex did a voluntary recall of more than 400,000 weight systems in an attempt to correct the problem, the release said.

The jury awarded $328,000 in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages after a two-week trial.

Source: Jackson Sun