Traveling with his wife in the couple’s motor home was an ideal lifestyle for William Day. Unfortunately, a dangerous manufacturing defect in his RV led to an unforeseen and seriously debilitating, accident.

Day was injured in his Winnebago Itasca Meridian motor home during a 2004 trip to Arizona to visit his son-in-law. He was putting away shoes in a storage area under the bed in the Winnebago’s bedroom area when a heavy board –  that held up the bed’s air mattress – fell on him, pushing him down on the floor and tearing the rotator cuff of his left shoulder. Day’s torn rotator cuff was the most severe his doctor had ever seen.

Although Day underwent surgery to repair his injured shoulder, the shoulder never healed properly. “I’m still in a great deal of pain, and it just gets worse as I get older,” Day says.

After asking the advice of workers at his local courthouse, Day decided to retain Lawrence Baron to bring a claim against Winnebago. During the course of the subsequent investigation, Baron discovered that the board that landed on Day was secured by only four wood screws.  Also, the screws were most likely never tightened properly during assembly. When Day moved the board to gain access to the storage area, the board simply ripped loose of its foundation. This defect was only one of many plaguing the vehicle. During his brief ownership of the Winnebago, Day had to take it to the dealer, La Mesa RV in Portland, for numerous repairs.  Many of those repairs, including several to the bed area in question, were proven by Baron to have been performed in a substandard manner.

Baron visited many retail RV sales centers as he prepared Day’s complaint. He discovered that Winnebago’s competitors designed their storage areas differently. Other companies used additional screws and incorporated a safer design to ensure a secure connection between the board and its foundation. In fact, Winnebago used a different design in its other coach models. Upon being presented with this information, Winnebago decided to settle the Day’s claim.

Day is thankful for Baron’s determined approach to hold Winnebago responsible for its shoddy workmanship. “Lawrence really went after them. He was like a bulldog,” Day says. “I’m glad Lawrence was on my side.”

Day continues to enjoy being a “fulltime RVer” despite suffering from lingering pain in his shoulder. A former longtime Oregon resident, he now lives in Washington with his wife Karleen and takes pleasure in driving around the country.