Ruth Bornsen never read the user manual for her North Dakota family business's Pragotrade meat grinder; she unilaterally decided that she did not need to use the plastic plunger to shove venison meat into the chute into the grinding mechanism, notwithstanding a diagram of fingers getting caught in the grinder. That didn't end well when the grinder removed four of fingers. This is, Bornsen says, Pragotrade's fault for making the chute large enough for her to put her hand in; there's also the standard failure-to-warn claim, because, after all, Bornsen wasn't warned by all the warnings, so Pragotrade should have put the warnings in different places. [Grand Forks Herald ($); Crookston Times]
Annals of personal responsibility: Bornsen v. Pragotrade
Related Entries:
- Pane and Suffering at Apple Store on Long Island
- Stella Liebeck anniversary
- Around the web, February 21
- Sioux sue
- "Porsche girl" lawsuit update
- DEA agent who shot himself can't sue the DEA
- Gabriel Bonilla v. Motel 6
- Around the web, August 31
- Around the web, August 25
- Around the web, August 15
- Hawaii legislature tries to create guidebook liability
- Personal responsibility files: Delvonte Tisdale
- Annals of personal responsibility
- Branham v. Ford $31M verdict overturned
![]() |
| Isaac Gorodetski Project Manager, Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute igorodetski@manhattan-institute.org |
![]() |
| Laura Eyi Press Officer, Manhattan Institute leyi@manhattan-institute.org |



