Independence Woman Gets $600,000 Judgment Over Meat Grinder Design Defects
After trial: Judgment was entered on the defendants' own offer of judgment, which Murphy accepted, so the case ended by agreement rather than by a contested ruling and no appeal has been reported. Missouri Lawyers Media reported that the LEM entities were covered by Travelers, which is why this result is treated as insurer-backed rather than a bare paper judgment. We have not pulled the PACER docket to confirm payment or the absence of post-judgment filings.
Won by BG Law LLC.
Terri Murphy of Independence, Missouri lost two and a half fingers and the tip of her thumb in 2017 when her hand was pulled into the auger of a LEM 'Big Bite' electric meat grinder while she was processing pork from her family's hobby farm. She sued the grinder's manufacturers, LEM Products Holding LLC, LEM Product Distribution LLC and LEM Product Direct LLC, alleging the machine had an oversized feed throat, could run with its safety feeder tray removed, carried inadequate warnings, and had a power switch she could not reach once her hand was caught. Rather than take the case to trial, the manufacturers made Murphy an offer of judgment, which she accepted, and the court entered a $600,000 judgment on January 25, 2023. Blake Green of BG Law and Adam Graves of Norman & Graves represented Murphy.
What happened
In 2017, Terri Murphy was grinding pork from her family's hobby farm at her home in Independence, Missouri, using a LEM 'Big Bite' electric meat grinder. As she fed a piece of meat into the top of the machine, the auger caught her hand and pulled it down into the grinder. Her daughter reached the machine and unplugged it, but not before Murphy lost two and a half fingers and the tip of her thumb.
Murphy sued the grinder's manufacturers, LEM Products Holding LLC, LEM Product Distribution LLC and LEM Product Direct LLC, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in 2021. Her complaint alleged the machine's feed throat was wider than it needed to be, that the grinder could be operated with its safety feeder tray removed entirely, that its warning labels did not adequately convey the danger, and that the power switch was positioned where she could not reach it once her hand was already caught in the auger.
The manufacturers denied the design was defective. They argued Murphy bore comparative fault for how she fed meat into the machine and that the danger posed by a meat grinder's moving blades was open and obvious to any user, a defense that put real risk on both sides of a trial.
The case, assigned to Judge Brian Wimes, never reached a jury. Before trial, the manufacturers extended Murphy an offer of judgment under the federal rules, a formal settlement offer that becomes an enforceable judgment once accepted. Murphy accepted it, and on January 25, 2023, the court entered judgment for $600,000.
Blake Green of BG Law in North Kansas City and Adam Graves of Norman & Graves in Kansas City represented Murphy. Christina Ingersoll of Andersen & Associates represented the LEM entities, whose product liability exposure was covered by Travelers.
Because the case ended when the manufacturers' own offer of judgment was accepted rather than through a contested verdict, the $600,000 figure reflects a resolution both sides chose over the risk of a trial where the defense was prepared to argue comparative fault and an open-and-obvious defense. An offer of judgment that the plaintiff accepts ends the case on terms the defendants themselves proposed, so there was nothing for either side to appeal, and no appeal has been reported in case number 2:21-cv-04218.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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