Sawstop's suit against Ryobi is upheld

will be overturned.

lawyers routinely abuse the judicial system as a part of their business model.

Guilty parties here:

1. Whoever removed the blade guard - I can rip boards with the blade guard in place. The things that requre removal of the guard (rabbet on a flooring transition piece) are so infrequent tha I have to stop and think about how the guard is removed.
2. The injured employee for being stupid (using a saw without a blade guard). Unfortunately, our society makes "stupidity" a suitable trait for litigation: blame anyone but me.
3. The employer for not buying a SawStop shop saw for use on a job site - physically impractical if not impossible. The contractor version of the SawStop is a recent addition to the line.
4. The "expert witness" who obviously has a monetary interest in this case (publicly faulting the competition). His connection with a competing product automatically makes him a biased witness and his testimon should not have been allowed. That would have forced the blame back to parties 1 or 3, none of whom have pockets as deep as Ryobi and the lawyers would have gotten their cut of a much smaller pie. If the injured employee removed the guard, he has no case.

I predict that the Supreme Court will rule along the lines of the testimony of the expert witness was biased and thus not acceptable.

John

Wasn't this the one where the plaintiff was not only ripping without the guard, he was ripping without a rip fence?

I think it's a fairly safe bet that the Supreme Court will overturn it. I'm glad the suit happened, though, and got so much attention. The major tool companies have had plenty of time to start retooling and upgrading safety since SawStop came on the scene. They've known which way the wind was blowing and something needed to be shaken loose.

The problem with this seems to be that Sawstop has the technology very thoroughly patented, and is not willing to license for anything reasonable, then they start a suit to result in their tech being required.

My understanding is that the principal in Sawstop is actually a patent lawyer.

Stuart

On 10/8/2011 11:31 AM, snipped-for-privacy@jecarter.us wrote: ...

_EXTREMELY_ unlikely US Supreme Court would even agree to hear such a case imo...

--

occasional users like me. I still have my hand saws.

You're three for three.

it was your own damn fault!

News' mention of Mark Twain's quote "First, we shoot all the lawyers" should definitely be the first step.

The ACLU should be all over Gass for attempting to take away the civil liberties of people and companies.

-- I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues. --Duke Ellington

I believe Mark swiped that thought from Shakespear...

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". (2 Henry VI, 4.2.59), Butcher to Jack Cade

They're dangerous, too. A common injury back in the day was "carpenter's thumb". That's where the saw jumped the kerf and bit into the back of the thumb and cut the tendon. That left the poor sod with a thumb that could be flexed but not straightened.

There simply will not be an overnight change in the entire saw market. If and when the new regs roll out it will mean that only new tools would be required to conform to the new and improved safety regulations. Used tools will still be available, though the prices of those will probably rise a bit as well. The regulations would have a date of compliance set at some point in the future, which will allow people to start hoarding existing saws, new and used.

Take a gamble - buy a dozen hobbiest tablesaws from Harbor Freight. Shouldn't cost more than a few hundred and the potential payback might be double that...if you live that long. ;)

The ignorant laborer is not the only ignorant one involved in this whole fiasco.

Totally agree! I am not too happy about SawStop pushing their product through government intervention however I am equally unhappy about all the other other manufacturers that have decided that more safety is too high a price to pay.

Might be a problem now however Sawstop approached most every manufacturer about acquiring a license to use the product. They had their change and thumbed their noses at it.

Do you know what that "price" was?

ACLU Companies? Shirley, you jest.

Furthermore, all the people I know who have one in their shops have had triggers. Some of them were on wet wood, stray metal or other nuisance reasons, some were for no known reason. None were for human/blade contact. Each trigger costs at least $100, often more depending on the value of the blade. This is a solution looking for a problem, especially when you consider that a standard guard, or any after market guard would solve the problem just as well.

Stuart