Together, the tower of cardboard weighed 1,000 pounds and reached a height of 14 feet. A week before the incident, LaLone used a forklift to move the bound pallets of cardboard in the warehouse and stacked them three bundles high. Each stack of cardboard was bound to a wooden pallet with nylon straps and was delivered to Blue Harvest by an outside vendor. According to LaLone, each pallet of stacked cardboard was four feet long and four feet high. Plaintiff suffered multiple injuries, including a broken hip that required emergency hip replacement surgery.īlue Harvest did not preserve the pallets or cardboard boxes that fell, nor were there any photographs taken. The top two bundles unexpectedly fell on them. As plaintiff and LaLone walked through the warehouse where packaging materials were stored, they passed a stack of three pallets of unassembled cardboard boxes near the walkway. On October 28, 2014, plaintiff met with Blue Harvest's owner, Adam LaLone, to inspect a malfunctioning air compressor on Blue Harvest's premises. Blue Harvest is a family-owned blueberry farm and packaging facility located in West Olive, Michigan. Plaintiff was employed by Air Components, Inc., as an air-compressor technician and salesperson.
However, it was permissible to proceed on the premises liability theory, the jury instructions on res ipsa loquitur and spoliation as to premises liability were proper, and it was appropriate for the jury to find Blue Harvest liable on the premises liability claim.
#Blueharvest fractured trial#
We conclude that the trial court erred when it allowed plaintiff to proceed to trial on both a premises liability and an ordinary negligence theory. On appeal, Blue Harvest raises multiple allegations of error originating from the trial court's denial of Blue Harvest's motion for summary disposition under MCR 2.116(C)(10) and from its motion for a new trial, JNOV, and remittitur. 1 Defendant, Blue Harvest Farms, LLC, appeals the trial court's order denying its motion for a new trial, judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), and remittitur. In both the long and short term, that may mean addressing the root cause itself: greenhouse gas emissions.Īs Vincent Amodoi, a project coordinator in Uganda for Farm Africa, a British charity that works with farmers, pastoralists and forest communities in East Africa, including coffee growers, said, “For me, climate change should be one of the major focuses for all governments in the world, and that is just not happening.In this negligence case, a jury awarded a total judgment of $358,288.98 in favor of plaintiffs, John and Ailene Pugno. Saenz said that she was hoping to compete with the big industrial farmers and to find ways to support the farmers she grew up knowing. When asked about how her company might affect smallholder farmers who grow most of the world’s coffee and often struggle to make a living, Ms. They plan to distribute this first product through coffee shops next year and, later, to create coffee grounds that can be brewed at home. The microbes are grown on their plant-based formula in bioreactors, a fermentation process similar to what happens naturally at a coffee farm.Īt the moment, this makes a cold-brew style extract that mimics the flavor, color and smell of real coffee, but with much less energy and water. Instead, the company replicates the microbes from actual coffee cherries, which give a cup of coffee its flavor and aroma, Ms. Rosenow said that these sorts of techniques, among others, like more targeted fertilizer use, had led to an increase of 24 percent in their yields for the farmers, and a 28 percent rise in income, some of which can be attributed to these techniques and some to access to new markets.Īnother tactic is planting different varieties that can better withstand both the leaf rust and other climate stressors, according to Hanna Neuschwander, the director of strategy and communications at World Coffee Research.Ĭompound Foods does not grow any coffee - at least, not in the traditional sense.
He has also helped other farmers to retain more soil moisture by planting shade trees, a traditional practice, and to employ other low-tech solutions, he said, speaking in Spanish translated by a C.R.S. to restore his soil by planting cover crops. Since climate change is making droughts both more frequent and intense, said Kristin Rosenow, an expert in agricultural development for C.R.S., using water more efficiently and preventing pollution of existing sources are crucially important.
0 kommentar(er)
