Napa Jury Awards Personal Watercraft Passenger $3.76 Million in Design Defect Case Against Polaris

On September 9, 2001, Susan Ford of Fairfield, California, went to Lake Berryessa for a family picnic. It was her first time on a personal watercraft. She climbed onto the back of a two-seat Polaris SLH-700 owned by friends, held on to the operator's waist, and was told after about five minutes to grab the handles behind her instead. All she could find were two grab handles that she could only hook a couple of fingers into.

The craft bounced over rough water. Susan lost her grip, lifted off the seat and fell backward, landing less than a foot from the jet nozzle. The high-pressure stream of water entered her body and tore apart her internal organs. Paramedics flew her by helicopter to UC Davis Medical Center. She needed multiple transfusions and two surgeries to establish a colostomy, and she spent 10 days in the hospital followed by five more at a second facility.

The damage was permanent. A specialist concluded her rectum could not be reconstructed, so she has no control over her bowels and uses a colostomy bag. Urological injuries mean she must catheterize herself to urinate, and nerve damage left her numb from the right kneecap to the waist, including the buttocks and pelvic area. She could no longer play softball or dance, could not keep up with her job at a grocery store, and the injuries strained her marriage to her husband, Anthony, a Fairfield police sergeant.

The Fords sued Polaris Industries on a strict products liability theory in Napa County Superior Court. Their engineering expert testified that the craft was defectively designed against rear ejection: it had recessed grips a passenger could not grasp fully, no seatback, and no seat strap, even though the machine had bolt holes for one and other Polaris models came with a strap. Polaris pointed to a decal and manual telling riders to wear a wetsuit or similar protective clothing, but Susan had worn a one-piece swimsuit, never saw the decal, and as a guest never saw the manual. Polaris's own engineer conceded she probably would not have been hurt had she been holding a seat strap. Paul Melodia, the San Francisco attorney who tried the case for the Fords, told the Napa Valley Register that the jet stream destroyed her rectum and that she nearly bled to death.

After about two and a half days of deliberation before Judge Scott Snowden, the jury found the watercraft defective in design and awarded Susan $382,024 in economic damages and $3,262,500 in noneconomic damages. It awarded Anthony $115,000 for loss of consortium, and it found Susan was not comparatively negligent. The total came to about $3.76 million. Polaris told the paper it disagreed with the verdict and said such injuries are statistically very rare.

Polaris appealed, arguing among other things that the doctrine of primary assumption of risk barred the claim and that the jury should have been allowed to assign fault to the operator and to the owners who lent the craft. The First District Court of Appeal rejected each argument and affirmed on May 18, 2006. The court found the standard design-defect instructions adequate and held the operator and owners owed no duty that would let a jury shift fault to them.