Sponsored By Cranford Manufacturing and EZY Climb Treesteps

My family has manufactured tree steps and other hunting accessories for the past 30 years.  We work hard, very hard to always produce and distribute a quality product that will provide years of safe hunting experiences for our customers.  We have an excellent safety track record, very low incidence of claims and very few injuries resulting from use of the products (especially considering that there are millions of EZY Climb Tree Steps in use in the market today).  We were very proud of the fact that we had never had to go to court on a product liability claim . . . until last year.  Let me tell you what happened.  The facts of this story are accurate; the names have been changed to protect the parties involved.

Samuel’s attorney contacted our company concerning the fact that he allegedly incurred injuries while using tree steps that were manufactured by our company.  We were presented with photographs of the “allegedly defective” tree steps.  The tree steps were perfectly intact, they did not appear to be bent in any way, were not broken and did not appear to be faulty in any manner.  Attached to the screw of the tree step was a small part of a tree.  Now to this casual observer, it appeared that we had a classic case of tree failure.  I suppose that since you cannot sue God for a faulty tree the next best thing to do is sue the person who manufactured the tree step.  This was the plan followed by Samuel.

Samuel’s attorney, Patricia, who incidentally is a close relative of his, faced off with our attorney (who was graciously assigned to our case by the insurance company) in a courtroom approximately one year ago.  After several days of testimony, a jury of 10 people found our company to have no liability whatsoever for the injuries suffered by Samuel.  Samuel had to pay the court costs.

Please do not get me wrong.  I am sincerely sorry that Samuel suffered injuries in a fall from a tree when hunting.  His injuries were painful and expensive.  Lucky for him, his injuries were not permanent or fatal as some people are not so lucky.  But, the question I am concerned with is who is at fault here?  I do not contest that he incurred injuries and expenses.  This was a very unfortunate situation however we must acknowledge that any outdoor activity such as hunting, especially when involving the climbing of trees, is an inherently dangerous activity.

Let’s look more closely at the situation.  Samuel was hunting from tree steps manufactured by our company in the 1980s.  These tree steps had been installed in a tree (the same tree) since sometime in the 1980s.  At least, that was our understanding from the documentation we received prior to the court date.  However, in the courtroom, we were confused as to whether the step was installed in the tree this entire time or if it was periodically removed and reinstalled.  Apparently the tree rotted around the screw of the tree step and a chunk of the tree broke off where the tree step was attached.  Samuel was also hunting without the use of a safety harness (incidentally, our company also manufactures excellent tree stand safety equipment which are available for purchase over the internet at www.ezyclimb.com).  The instructions for the tree steps clearly specify that he should use such safety equipment.  Who do you believe is at fault here?  Should the tree step company (or the insurance company who insures the tree step company) be liable for this and should they pay out tens of thousands of dollars because of this situation?  Here, you can be the judge and make the decision.  In the court room the jury made the decision and said that the tree step company had no liability in this situation.  Therefore, in a word, we “won” the case . . . in the courtroom.

However, let me be very clear that no one “won” in this situation.  Let’s look at the cost involved.  Members of our management team spent hours and hours completing interrogatories, being deposed with court reporters, discussing the case on the phone with the attorney, writing documents for the attorney and insurance company.  In the business world, this sort of activity is affectionately referred to as “business interruption”.  We were interrupted doing these activities rather than spending that time running our business.  Our company incurred the cost of the deductible on our insurance policy (we will not go to specific dollar amounts but that was thousands of dollars).  We incurred the absence of an important management team member who had to travel out of state to appear in court to testify on our behalf.  This lawsuit that we “won” conservatively cost our company tens of thousands of dollars.  In addition, even though we “won” the case and our insurance company did not pay out any money in claims, when our policy came up for renewal, our annual premium doubled in cost.  That was a huge cost to our company.  In addition, one year later when the policy was up for renewal again the premium for the same type of insurance tripled (this means six times the amount the policy cost before the lawsuit).  So, did we “win”?  Fortunately, we won, but we lost as well.  In my opinion, the entire hunting community lost.  We have been forced to raise prices to attempt to recover the additional cost of insurance, not to mention the increase in steel prices, gas prices and general inflation.

I encourage you to take responsibility for your own safety when hunting from elevated stands.  Please for your sake and mine:  hunt responsibly, take safety precautions, follow instructions, if you do not have instructions for your equipment obtain those instructions from the manufacturer before using the equipment, inspect your equipment before each use, realize that the elements can have an effect on your equipment that may or may not be able to be predicted and encourage your friends to take these steps as well.  If an unfortunate injury should happen to you, please consider the possible consequences before you decide to take legal action.  Everyone will ultimately pay for your decision and you too could be out thousands of dollars should you lose the case.

The big picture here concerns what the future holds for the hunting community directly and you, the consumer, indirectly.  If the trend of increasing insurance premiums and the decrease of market availability of insurance carriers continues, this industry may be left with no one willing to insure these products.  There are already very few insurance companies willing to carry this type of insurance at any cost and as the list shortens the premiums tend to rapidly increase.  At some point in time there may be no insurance coverage available, or at least no coverage available that anyone can afford to pay.  If this happens, not only will manufacturers no longer be able to manufacture and sell products for hunting activities, but there will be a huge amount of product in the market that is left uninsured as companies stop production, close down and liquidate.  The products that they have been making for years or decades will still be in use, but there will be no insurance coverage in the even of an unfortunate accident for which the manufacturer should indeed be held liable.

I think you get my point.  Just be careful and consider the consequences of your actions.  You could very well affect your own future and the future of the entire hunting community.