A Butte County jury awarded $30 million Tuesday to a Chico woman whose head was gashed by a boat propeller in a horrific wakeboarding accident five years ago on Lake Oroville.

The Superior Court panel laid 80 percent of the blame for the injuries suffered by 27-year-old Niki Bell on MasterCraft Boat Co., the manufacturer, based in Vonore, Tenn.

Plaintiffs' lawyers charged the MasterCraft X45 has a design flaw that caused the front end of the boat to submerge partially during a low-speed turn and dump Bell and another woman into the water.

"They made the bow huge – it was a Frankenstein's monster," said Bell's Sacramento attorney, Roger A. Dreyer. "They took two existing boats and combined them, but never engineered it. They made it very large so a lot of people could be in it. If it dips, the water pours in, and that's what happened."

MasterCraft's lawyer, Thomas Dale Nielsen, also of Sacramento, said the accident was the first for the boat, which is sold nationwide.

Nielsen said MasterCraft "will consider its appellate options" in assessing the verdict.

"Obviously, we are very disappointed in the outcome," Nielsen said. "We believe the evidence established that the MasterCraft X45 did not cause this accident and that while MasterCraft has great compassion for both Ms. Bell and (co-plaintiff) Ms. (Bethany) Wallenburg due to their serious injuries, we continue to believe that the accident was caused by an impaired, reckless driver."

Also represented by Dreyer's firm, Wallenburg received a $500,000 award in Tuesday's verdict.

Along with the 80 percent of responsibility the jury assigned to MasterCraft, it also found boat operator Jerry Montz, now 33, liable for 20 percent of the damages suffered by Bell and Wallenburg.

According to evidence at the trial, Montz had been drinking at the time of the accident and registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.04 percent. He was arrested after the July 9, 2006, accident and later pleaded no contest to negligent operation of a watercraft, according to his lawyer.

Montz's Roseville attorney, Jerry Duncan, said the jury's finding essentially exonerated his client, an upper Sacramento Valley rice farmer.

"He feels vindicated," Duncan said. "He's carried a burden since the accident happened because he never understood why it happened. Being able to sit through the trial enabled him and the girls' parents to understand what happened. It's just a great relief to have the case behind him."

Duncan said his client's insurance company has already paid $1 million in the case. Dreyer said Bell and Wallenburg are not planning to collect any more money from Montz.

Under strict liability law, "we are planning to get 100 percent of the verdict from the manufacturer," Dreyer said.

The two women were both washed into the lake as the boat made a 3-to-5-mph turn to retrieve a wakeboarder it was towing who had fallen, according to evidence at the trial.

As the boat continued its turn, the propeller slashed Wallenburg across the back, and it struck Bell in the head – fracturing her skull, slicing through her frontal lobe and ripping out her left eye.

Plaintiffs' lawyers argued that it was a design flaw that caused the boat to dip into the water – an excessively big bow that allowed too many people to get in the front, as well as seepage through a forward anchor slot. The defense said Montz allowed too many people on board – 19 – in a craft rated for 18. Moreover, Nielsen said, Montz allowed 12 passengers to sit in the bow.

Cindy Bell, the plaintiff's mother, said her daughter is living independently in Chico and is able to work part time.

But Niki Bell is going to need major assistance for her daily living chores for the rest of her life, her mother said. Bell's parents can provide help only as long as they're alive, according to her mother.

"You just want to make sure she's taken care of when we're dead and gone," Cindy Bell said. "We're not as worried now how she's going to handle everything when we die."

Their lead attorney, Dreyer, said the case is "a great example of the civil justice system at work, where a young woman through her parents can hold a major manufacturer responsible for a defective design and that she can, through the power of the jury process in a rural community, have the product scrutinized and evaluated."

"This is the power of democracy at work in communicating to the manufacturer that they have to take basic steps to do the right thing," Dreyer said.

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