When is a fingernail worth $500,000?
When it's missing from the pitching hand of a major-league baseball pitcher.A Utah federal jury Wednesday awarded $500,000 to former Cleveland Indians pitcher Colby Ward to compensate him for the loss of the fingernail from his right index finger during a 1989 industrial accident in Provo.
The jury concluded that Ward was 17 percent responsible for the accident, so the total verdict was reduced by that amount, leaving Ward $415,000.
Ward asked for $2 million from the manufacturer and retailer of a book trimmer that tore the nail from his finger while he was trying to unjam the machine.
"A belt he did not recognize continued to operate when the safety guard was up and it nipped his finger," defense attorney Allen Young said. Ward was using a three-knife trimmer used to make book edges smooth.
The accident happened at Pro Litho, 201 East Bay Blvd. The business has since been sold. At the time he was injured, Ward was playing for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, the Cleveland Indians' farm team. His fingernail did not completely grow back.
A year after the injury, the Cleveland Indians decided to bring him up from the farm.
He pitched 22 games in the majors before the team let him go, Young said. "The injury flattened his ball out and made it so it didn't sink. It didn't fall," the lawyer explained.
The tip of the finger also got sore when Ward pitched, he said.
Despite the lack of a sink, Ward struck out 23 players during 36 innings in relief. His win/loss record was 1-3, with an earned-run average of 4.25.
Ward's suit was a personal injury case, but the eight-day trial focused on the game. Former baseball pros Vernon Law and Carl Willis came to town to testify. Pitching coaches, a director, a statistician and players all took the stand to talk about pitches, sinks and what it takes to make it in the majors.
Law had watched videos of Ward's pitching and testified that Ward did not have the talent for a long major-league career, said Jim Clegg, attorney for Kolbus, the German manufacturer.
Willis, who had been a teammate of Ward's, testified that the injury had damaged a promising pitch. The Cleveland Indians' pitching coach and director of players also testified for Ward.
The director said without the injury, Ward could have played six years for the team, earning approximately $2 million.
"The jury clearly didn't buy that or they would have given us the $2 million," Young said.
Clegg was disappointed that the jury gave Ward anything at all. The machine's belt was there to be seen. Ward shouldn't have stuck his hand in it, Clegg said.
The retailer of the machine settled with Ward last week. The confidential settlement was about what the company would have had to pay under the verdict, Young said.
Ward, now 30, lives in Texas and works for Novell Corp.