by Lynette Alice

Created on: May 12, 2010   Last Updated: May 13, 2010

It’s not everyday that a regular Joe - or Michael Powell in this case - takes on a huge corporation and wins. After 6 years of working and fighting, that day has come. Michael Powell took on Home Depot and he won. Actually he didn’t just win, he won huge to the tune of $25 million, and best of all Home Depot had to eat a big serving of humble pie in the process.

It all began in 2004 when Home Depot finally decided to take workplace safety seriously. Home Depot runs a lot of saws and accidents do happen. Accidents also lead to lawsuits and lawsuits cost money. Home Depot contacted Powell in early 2004 hoping he could come up with something to make radial saws safer. Powell came up with what he called “Safe Hands”, Home Depot loved it and everything should have been just peachy - only it wasn’t.

Home Depot wanted to buy 2,000 Safe Hands at a cost of $1,200 each - a price Powell thought was too low. He did however sell them 8 Safe Hands and that was where things get ugly. When Powell balked at their offer of $1,200 Home Depot basically gave him the finger. They took Safety Hands to another manufacturer and had them produce the product. Powell’s price of $2,000 per unit was exorbitant to them and they refused to budge - but stealing the idea seemed more logical and cheaper somehow.

A Home Depot executive who was informed Powell planned to sue when he learned of what they did with Safety Hands said; “F* Michael Powell. Let him sue us.” That was enough to push Powell over the edge and he did just that. It took until February of 2010 just to get to the jury selection phase of the trial. Once the jury sat and the case began it didn’t really take very long to for anyone to see exactly what happened - and get really ticked off.

On May 12, 2010, The jury finally weighed in and awarded Powell $25 million in damages. Home Depot was cited as being arrogant in their stance to refuse to actually pay an inventor for something that would not only save them tens of millions in lawsuits potentially, but save the fingers and maybe even hands of employees. People tend to like their limbs and digits remaining in place and in working order.

The bottom line financially is this:

* The cost off the 2,000 units at Powell's price would have been $4 million
* The price differential being haggled over was $1.6 million dollars
* The lawsuit cost them $25 million in damages not including legal fees
* That makes the price per unit (2,000 unit base) $12,500 each (A difference of $10,500 per unit)
* Home Depot 2008 annual revenue =  $71.3 billion

Somehow it seems very difficult to imagine that Home Depot needed to trim expenses so much that $1.6 million would have been a make or break dollar amount for the corporation - even considering 2004/2005 era revenue was lower than 2008.  Now they not only have to pay out exponentially more, they tarnished their reputation, and they look a whole lot like a corporation hell bent on squashing the little neighborhood guy instead of helping him build a better tomorrow.

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