CHARLESTON – A Mingo County man says a faulty protection system on a friend’s UTV caused him severe injuries.
Carlos J. Copley filed his complaint in federal court against Polaris Industries Inc. and Polaris Inc.
According to the complaint, Copley was in Dennis Lambert’s 2023 Polaris Ranger UTV on November 3, 2023. After they and others travelled to various remote locations in Mingo County to fill wild game feeders, they were headed back to Copley’s home on Dingess Road.
When they approached a left-hand curve, he says the front right wheel of the UTV left the roadway. As the shoulder sloped downward into a drainage ditch, he says the wheels dropped causing the UTV to cant to a slight angle.
Then, the top front passenger side corner of the UTV’s roll-over protection system (ROPS) clipped a tree and “nearly instantaneously and catastrophically failed, crushing rearward and down into the subject UTV’s passenger compartment.”
“Certain failed components of the subject ROPS impacted plaintiff’s head, neck and shoulder causing plaintiff to lose consciousness,” the complaint states. “The subject UTV came to rest just beyond the tree after the allision and Mr. Lambert, along with the other passengers in the subject UTV, was able to extract plaintiff from the subject UTV and lay him on the ground.
“Emergency services were immediately notified of the event, and plaintiff was transported from the scene by ambulance. During and as a direct result of the allision, plaintiff sustained life-threatening injuries.”
According to the complaint, the Polaris ROPS includes a structure comprised of, among other things, frame structure, hollow tubes, pillars, cross members, mounting brackets, bolted frame connections, anchors, fasteners, welded joints, gussets and braces.
“At the time the subject UTV left the control of defendants, the ROPS incorporated in the subject UTV was so defectively designed as to render it unsafe for its intended use,” the complaint states. “It was reasonably foreseeable to defendants that their ROPS could catastrophically fail during the normal, expected, and intended use of Polaris UTVs equipped with ROPSs, such as the subject UTV.
“It was reasonably foreseeable to defendants that end-users such as plaintiff could be injured in the event of a catastrophic ROPS failure during normal, expected, and intended use of Polaris UTVs equipped with ROPSs, such as the subject UTV. … Plaintiff used the subject utv and its component parts, including the subject ROPS in a reasonably foreseeable manner within the scope of the normal, expected, and intended use of the subject UTV and ROPS.”
Copley accuses Polaris of strict liability design defect, strict liability manufacturing defect and strict liability malfunction theory as well as negligence.
He seeks compensatory damages for medical and hospital bills for diagnostic and preventative treatment and therapies as well as for treatment of past and future injuries. He also seeks damages for physical injuries, severe and significant emotional distress, mental pain and suffering, fear, humiliation, embarrassment, annoyance, inconvenience, loss of physical health and well-being, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of income and earning capacity, loss of value of retirement benefits including loss of value of pension and retirement benefits, disability, disfigurement, compensatory damages, punitive damages, exemplary damages, attorney fees, court costs, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
Copley is being represented by Christopher D. Pence, Jason P. Foster and Michael W. Taylor of Pence Law Firm in Charleston.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:24-cv-257