Barbara Kay of Gravois Mills, a tiny town in central Missouri, woke up on fire one morning two years ago.
Kay, who is partially paralyzed as as result of a stroke, suffered burns on one-third of her body. But what was to blame? Her electric blanket, or the cigarettes she liked to smoke before pushing off to scratchy-throat dreamland?
A jury in U.S. District Court in Kansas City considered the question. At a trial during the summer, Kay's attorneys argued that she wrapped herself in a blanket, manufactured by Sunbeam Products, that was defective. Kay lost part of her left arm and left breast as a result of her burns, according to Alyson E. Raletz of Missouri Lawyers Media.
Sunbeam's lawyers blamed Kay's smoking habit. The local fire chief said a cigarette started the fire. The defense produced medical records indicating Kay had suffered from cigarette burns before the October 28, 2008, fire. Sunbeam also said Kay did not use the blanket properly, pointing, no doubt, to the fine print in the only-a-lawyer-could-love instruction book that came with the unit.
The jurors awarded a $2 million verdict after a four-day trial. But Kay, who is in her 70s, had to pay a negligence tax. The jury ascribed 65 percent of the fault to her smoking and 35 percent to Sunbeam's blanket. So she and her lawyers chopped up $700,000.
The two sides settled before the jury could come up with a number on punitive damages.
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