In a recent case, a state appellate court recently decided that a Georgia products liability case could proceed to trial against a store that sold an anchoring tool without providing instructions or a tool necessary for proper installation. According to the court’s opinion, a worker was doing electrical work as part of a construction project and was standing on a ladder when a concrete rod dislodged from the ceiling, causing a heavy piece of equipment to fall. As the equipment fell, some piece of it struck the man in the face, causing him to fall from the ladder. He was seriously injured as a result.
Evidently, the equipment that struck the worker was anchored into the concrete ceiling using a part that had been installed a few days earlier using concrete anchors sold by the defendant store. To install the anchors properly, a person must drill a hole to a specific depth, empty the hole, put in the anchor and setting tool, and hammer in the setting tool, which causes the tip of the anchor to expand. If used correctly with the proper setting tool, there would be an indentation in the flange of the anchor to confirm that the anchor has set properly.
The process is explained in instructions that are supposed to accompany the anchors. The box of anchors used at the construction site did not include those instructions and the workers on the site did not see those instructions prior to using the anchor. The defendant store also did not sell the correct setting tool at the store where the anchors were purchased.