$10 Million For Child Killed By Folding Table

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York

Plaintiff Rejects Confidential Settlement

By NATALIE WHITE
Wednesday, March 15, 2004

After the plaintiff rejected a confidential settlement, a table manufacturer recently agreed to pay $10 million to a Pennsylvania mother whose 5-year-old son died in 2001 when a folding cafeteria table fell on him.

Attorneys for the youngster's mother, Angeline Uberti, said the settlement was reached at the end of January, a week before trial.

"We were prepared to show that this was a table that was defective and unreasonably dangerous," said Thomas Kline, who represented the plaintiff with co-counsel Matthew Casey. "During discovery we uncovered documents, not only about this particular table, the BU12, but about folding table dangers in cafeterias and auditoriums and gymnasiums around the country."

Kline said they were prepared to prove that the defendant - Chicago-based Midwest Folding Products, which manufactures tables commonly used in school cafeterias - knew that its tables were prone to tipping over but it ignored warnings of the safety problems.

Defense attorney Joseph Goldberg did not return requests for comment from Lawyers Weekly USA.

Casey and Kline said one barrier to settlement was that the table manufacturer wanted the agreement to remain confidential but Uberti was adamant that others needed to know about the dangers behind her son's death, so that other children would not get hurt.

"The table has not been recalled during the negotiation of this settlement, we were asked for a confidentiality agreement, which we refused, " said Kline. "This is one of those cases where it is important that the information, the documents and the testimony we developed in the litigation come into public view. What we found is instructive to every school district, that they should take special precautions not only with this folding table but all folding tables that have a high center of gravity and a propensity for tipping over."

Midwest has stopped making the table that killed Jonathan Cozzolino and redesigned the model to make it more stable. But thousands of the BU12, and similar tables manufactured by other companies, are still in use in schools throughout the country, Kline said.

Shortcuts Continue the Danger

In February of 2001, 5-year-old Jonathan Cozzolino was standing in line at the Hamilton Disston Elementary School when he leaned against a folded up table, which fell on him. The kindergartener suffered fatal head injuries.

"He went to school in the morning and never came home," said casey.

The tables, which are designed to be portable, fold up for storage so cafeteria space can be used for other activities.

Kline and Casey quickly discovered that this kind of table had publicly known problems in the past, although these problems had not resulted in serious injury. But the plaintiff's attorneys said that persistent discovery turned up significant information against the company.

Shortly after the accident they easily found out that in 1989 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned the public about the dangers of folding cafeteria tables after six children died and 14 others were injured. Midwest products were not involved in any of these incidents.

'This told us that the industry had some problems. What it didn't tell us was whether Midwest had noticed any problems with their own tables," Casey said.

That took more digging.

The plaintiff's lawyers kept asking for documents from Midwest that related to the safety of the tables. After pouring through piles of documents, however, they were still far from developing a solid case. Then they noticed that the company advertised that customers could feel assured of this particular model's safety because it was approved by Underwriters Laboratories.

They asked for documents and correspondence between Midwest and UL. The company balked, refusing to turn over information, the plaintiff's attorneys said. It was sanctioned $1,000 and eventually turned over the requested information.

"We knew there had to be documents relating to the table design risk of tipping. We just kept at it, asking and asking. What we found was an incredible incriminating paper trail," Casey said.

When the plaintiff's legal team combed through the documents, they found information that the company knew there were safety concerns about the table and had tried to work around them by using an add-on stabilizer, called a tip-guard.

Underwriters Laboratories is an independent organization that tests consumer products for safety and works with a wide variety of manufacturers. After the safety commission warnings in 1989, UL questioned the stability of the table and said the base should be widened to prevent tipping.

"Midwest said they didn't want to do it because they wouldn't be able to put as many tables in their trucks for shipping," Casey said. "That prompted a whole series of correspondence and we knew we had some explosive material then."

Instead, Midwest said it would send out the tip-guards for customers to install on the tables. UL accepted the proposal, but in 1994 revisited the issue. They did a test on the table with the tip-guard and found it was still at risk for tipping. Midwest redesigned the table in 1995, but never alerted customers that the previous model might have tipping troubles.

The Philadelphia schools bought their tables in 1992, during the time the company told UL it was sending out tip-guards to be added onto each table. But the plaintiff's team could find nothing to indicate that the tip-guards ever reached Philadelphia.

'"We learned that in 10 years no one in the Philadelphia school system had ever seen a tip-guard," Casey said. "We spent a lot of time there, in warehouses, in the schools, interviewing everyone. No one had ever heard of a tip-guard. We were set to prove that they never sent any tip-guards to Philadelphia, a very damning indictment."

Casey also said the product information sent along with the tables ordered in 1992 was devoid of information about the tip-guards and did not notify consumers to install the tip-guard. In fact, when the plaintiffs had a metallurgist test the table he found that there was no evidence that a tip-guard had ever been installed on the table that fell on Cozzolino.

Cozzolino's mother also sued the Philadelphia school district, which settled last year for $500,000, the maximum allowed by state law. School officials inspected all tables after the accident and removed more than 1,000 that were deemed unsafe.

Plaintiffs' Attorneys: Thomas Kline and Matthew Casey of Kline & Specter in Philadelphia

Defense Attorneys:Joseph Goldberg of Margolis Edelstein in Philadelphia

The Case: Uberti v. School District of Philadelphia; Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas; Judge Jacquelyn Allen.