Lake County

THE PLAIN DEALER
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1998

Instrument firm faces music in worker injury

PAINESVILLE - A Madison man was awarded $375,000 yesterday after losing one finger and severely damaging his hand in an accident at United Musical Instruments Inc. In Eastlake.

Patrick Larbig, 30, was injured Feb. 28, 1995, while using a buffing machine to color a musical instrument called a melaphone. The instrument got caught in the machine and dragged Larbig's hand into the wheel. The little finger of his right hand had to be amputated. The bones in two other fingers were crushed and his wrist was broken.

Larbig has undergone seven surgeries and cannot fully open or close his right hand, said his attorney, Patrick T. Murphy.

Murphy said the jury in Lake County common Pleas Judge Martin O. Parks' courtroom had to determine that United Musical Instruments knew the work was dangerous and "an injury to an employee was substantially certain to occur."

Murphy said there have been other injuries to employees using the buffing machines, which can spin at the rate of 2,500 revolutions per minute, but to his knowledge this was the first negligence lawsuit filed by an employee against the company.

Attorney for United Musical Instruments argued in court documents that Larbig had nearly gotten into a fight with another employee shortly before the accident and that he was not concentrating on his work "while performing an industrial process that is admittedly subject to some risk."

Larbig also claimed the buffing wheel was defective, al allegation that attorneys for the company denied.