On April 23, 2007, plaintiff Frank Schaffner, an employee of Costco Wholesale Corp. was operating a Crown Model RC3020 forklift in a Mountain View store. He claimed that the forklift failed to operate correctly and ran into a support beam, crushing his left leg between the beam and the forklift. Schaffner sued the manufacturers of the forklift, Crown Equipment Corp., which was doing business as Crown Lift Trucks; and the distributor of the forklift, Northwest Handling Systems Inc. He alleged that the forklift was defective and that the defects caused it to fail to operate correctly. Thus, Schaffner alleged that the defendants breached the express and implied warranty relating to the forklift’s design, manufacture, sales and maintenance, and that the defendants failed to warn of and/or remedy the defects in the forklift. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that Crown received numerous reports of accidents involving serious to operators and users of its forklifts due to the defective manufacture and design. Counsel contended that despite this knowledge, Crown continued to warrant, manufacture and sell the forklifts without providing adequate warnings or safeguards. Northwest contended that it is a distributor who had no role in the manufacturing, design or maintenance of the subject forklift. It further claimed it has an express agreement with Crown, in which Crown has agreed to indemnify it from and against all causes of action alleged to be the result of defective manufacture or design of Crown equipment. Crown denied that its forklifts, including the forklift involved in the alleged accident, were in any way defectively designed, manufactured, sold or maintained. It also denied that it failed to warn and/or remedy any defects in its forklifts. Thus, Crown denied any responsibility for any suffered by Schaffner in the alleged accident. Crown also denied the indemnity agreement between itself and Northwest., Schaffner sustained a crush injury to his left leg. Thus, he sought compensatory damages for his related to the accident, including general damages, lost earnings, future wages, past and future medical expenses, and punitive damages. Crown’s counsel contended that Schaffner is not entitled to any damages and under no circumstances would punitive damages be appropriate. However, counsel contended that in the event that liability was established, any damages should be reduced by the Schaffner’s comparative negligence and limited to damages for loss of earnings/capacity, medical expenses and pain and suffering. Northwest requested declaratory relief, claiming that Schaffner was not entitled to any damages from it, and sought full indemnity and recovery of all defense costs from Crown.