SOUTHFIELD, Mich - Taser International Inc., the largest stun-gun maker, defeated an appeal by a sheriff's officer who contended the company was liable for injuries he suffered when he was shocked in a training exercise.
A state appeals court in Phoenix yesterday denied a request for a new trial by Samuel Powers, the former deputy, who said he suffered a broken back because Taser didn't warn of the weapon's risk.
The former officer, then 44, lost a jury verdict in December 2005.
The appeals court rejected his assertion that the Phoenix trial court wrongly kept him from presenting evidence that Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser knew the gun could cause long-term injury and failed to warn, and that the judge wrongly instructed the jury on how to consider the evidence.
"The trial court did not err" in its jury instructions, a three-judge appeals panel said.
The company said that Powers was injured because he had osteoporosis and that he shouldn't have volunteered to be shot.
Powers's was the first of two product-defect claims to go to trial against Taser.
The company prevailed in the other trial and won dismissals of other cases.
At least 10 lawsuits brought by police officers injured in training accidents have been settled.
Powers was injured in July 2002 when he volunteered to be shot with the Taser, which delivers a temporarily disabling electric shock through a wire.
The officer said in his suit that he took a two-second hit that set off muscle contractions severe enough to cause a compression fracture of one of his vertebrae.
The injury ended his 16-year career.
The pivotal issue on appeal was a so-called hindsight test, which Powers argued required Taser to update warnings.
Taser argued the test didn't apply, and the appeals court agreed, finding that the judge's rulings were not reversible error.
John Dillingham, a Phoenix lawyer who represented Powers, and Doug Klint, Taser's general counsel, didn't immediately return calls for comment.
