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Jury’s decision about child’s death shocks family
By Stephanie Flemmons, Staff writer
After deliberating less than two hours, a federal jury decided that a 12-year-old boy was negligent in his own death, despite “expert testimony” proving the golf club that impaled him was defective.
The fate of Chandler Jackson’s life was placed in the hands of a six-person jury in the Eastern District Court of Texas in Sherman.
When the verdict was read in April, the Jackson family, along with their attorney, gasped with stunned emotions.
The Jackson family resided in Carrollton until moving to Frisco in 2000. Chandler attended a private Christian school in Carrollton until the fourth grade; he finished out the last two years of his life attending school in Lewisville. Chandler was killed July 6, 2005, while playing in a scramble golf tournament in a small town in Kentucky.
Tragedy struck while Chandler was retrieving his ball that he sliced onto a neighboring fairway. After hearing a loud snap and a cry for help, players knew something was not right. Somehow, the nine-iron golf club Chandler was holding impaled him. He pulled the golf shaft out of his throat and managed to yell for help. He attempted to get up on his knees to cry for help again, and then collapsed.
According to Charmane Jackson, Chandler’s mother, District Attorney Mike Holdencamp had just teed off on No. 1 and was the first to come to Chandler’s aid. When he saw Chandler lying on the ground, he found him bleeding profusely from his throat. Holdencamp yelled to get towels and then put pressure on the wound. No one realized the extent of his injuries. “Chandler’s dad made it to his side and screamed ‘stay with me, stay with me,’” Charmane later said. Chandler could only respond with his eyes and tried to nod his head.
Charmane was in Frisco when she received the phone call from Rick Jackson, Chandler’s father. “Charmane, there has been an accident and it’s not good n start praying,” she was told. Charmane yelled repeatedly, “Don’t let my baby die, don’t let my baby die.”
Once emergency personnel arrived, Chandler was revived on the golf course and transported by CareFlite to a Kentucky hospital. Chandler’s golf club had broken four inches from the hossle and impaled him, shearing off his subclavin artery on its way to the aorta. Chandler died two hours later.
After his death, Charmane said she knew something was not right. Since no one on the golf course witnessed his death, speculative reports describing the cause of Chandler’s death began. The medical examiner wrote in his report that Chandler was running with a broken club. When confronted with the finding, the M.E. said that it was speculation by a bystander, and he didn’t know how the accident happened.
“I wanted to know what happened,” Charmane said. “The club broke four inches from the hossle. Something was not right.”
When Rick contacted Dan Van Horn, owner of U.S. Kids Golf n which branded the club that impaled Chandler n he believed Van Horn showed little emotion or concern.
Van Horn testified in his deposition that he had never heard of any of his shafts breaking. He also believed that Chandler was somehow misusing the club.
“My son’s favorite saying was, ‘I’m having one of the best days of my life,’” Charmane said. “Their speculation [that Chandler possibly struck a tree with his club] was totally out of character for my son; he was always very happy, loving and very giving. He was having a wonderful day and laughing and having fun with his cousin and they tried to say he would do something malicious like walk down and hit a tree. His body was found 30 to 40 feet away from a tree.”
Charmane spent two days sitting in the area where her injured son was found. She studied the incline Chandler had to walk down to retrieve his ball.
Charmane hired Dies to oppose U.S. Kids Golf’s claim and they found that the company did not perform testing on its clubs, and that it had no quality control department and no records of returns until 2003. When investigated by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) after Chandler’s death, U.S. Kids denied that it ever had clubs returned. According to records, the CPSC retrieved reports in its database and found several returns of shafts breaking or club heads flying off.
The Chinese steel manufacturing company, Femco, admitted in a deposition taken before the trial that it performed only sporadic testing on the steel it used to manufacture the shafts.
Van Horn also admitted in his deposition that the only testing the company conducted was random frequency testing using a Golfsmith Frequency Analyzer device that cost $500, which is a “wiggle machine” that tests for velocity, not safety. He said he would also invite his children and their friends to the driving range to test the clubs by simply hitting golf balls with them.
Charmane said during the trial, experts testified that the nine-iron Chandler used that broke and impaled him was defective.
The metallurgist, mechanical engineer and biomechanical engineer testified that the area of Chandler’s club that broke and was examined under a microscope showed there were several defects in the club, including design defects, metal too soft, club head not symmetric to shaft and fractures in the plate where the club eventually failed over the two years he used the club.
Experts testified that the area of the club that broke became weaker each time Chandler hit the club. They testified there were fractures where the club broke.
The experts also proved that by Van Horn instructing the company to cut a woman’s club down n to make it small enough for a child n made the club weaker.
In Van Horn’s deposition, he testified it wasn’t until after Chandler’s accident that he contacted Femco to understand the properties of the metal used in the clubs he was selling to children. He said since the shafts he purchased were intended for adults, he believed they would be more than strong enough for kids. During the trial a Femco employee testified that when he received Van Horn’s instruction to cut the original shaft to meet a child’s size club, he asked him to conduct additional testing for safety because it was not the company’s regular design. Van Horn testified that he did not believe that it was his job as a retailer to conduct testing.
Van Horn’s attorney, Clayton Devin, said he believes the shafts were strong enough for kids, and it was not Van Horn’s place to question Femco’s product.
“Mr. Van Horn was devastated to learn that a club with his company’s name was involved in an incident that involved the death of a child,” Devin said. “This has been a very difficult case for myself and Mr. Van Horn. It’s been one of the most difficult and emotional cases I’ve ever faced.”
Devin believes that U.S. Kids Golf won the case because they proved that the fractures in the club occurred after the club was broken.
Rick and Charmane believe Van Horn showed no emotion when confronted about the death of their son.
“To this day, there is still no testing of the clubs,” Charmane said. “The same shaft that killed Chandler [is] still being sold on the market.”
After two and one-half days of testimony, the six-man jury deliberated less than two hours to determine the verdict.
“In a child’s life, how can you take less than two hours to decide?” Charmane asked. “I just think there is something not right here. Especially, when there was so much damning evidence against these two companies.”
From the beginning of the trial, Charmane said the judge put so many time constraints on the trial, she felt a crucial amount of vital information and testimony was left out.
“A federal court is allowed to do this, but in all the years my attorney has practiced law, he has never seen this many time constraints, not to this degree,” Charmane said. “They basically gave us two days to try our case.”
Charmane said she was limited in the amount of time to testify, and the people who knew Chandler and his outlook on life were left out.
Before, during and after the jury deliberated, U.S. Kids’ attorneys attempted multiple negotiations.
“They attempted many negotiations outside of court and while the jury was deliberating,” Charmane said. “But the purpose of this case was for them to start testing their clubs or stop selling the exact shaft that killed Chandler.”
Devin said negotiations are common in cases such as this, but would not comment further. He said in the end, no one witnessed what happened on the golf course that evening. He said he was not surprised at the verdict for this reason, and because he believes the experts he hired to testify raised the question that the fractures in the club were there after the club broke.
In his deposition, Van Horn testified that U.S. Kids has modified the Performance Light Club that was used in his death. Van Horn claims the change was only made to the head of the club; he testified the shaft has not changed.
Now the Jacksons are left wondering whether justice will prevail in the death of their son.
Charmane said she wants to appeal, but the federal appellate process is more complicated than state courts. Her appeal deadline expires today.
Contact Stephanie Flemmons at sflemmons@acnpapers.com
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