A jury found Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court that the University was not liable in the personal injury suit brought by 64-year-old inventor Henry Orensten.
The case meandered through the courts system for more than five years after Orensten broke his leg on a Duluth campus property. Because no lawyer would take the case, Orensten represented himself throughout the trial.
“We’re pleased because the verdict followed the evidence in court,” said Bill Donohue, the University’s associate general counsel. “He has all those conspiracy theories. They have no merit and the jury found so.”
During opening statements Monday morning, Orensten claimed the University was liable for the broken leg he received May 21, 1993. He said the dirt he became mired in was wet and exposed because of landscaping, thus dangerous and should have been marked.
The University’s attorney Stephen O. Plunkett countered by saying Orensten had changed his story of the fall from tripping over a curb to accidentally getting stuck in the mud of a shrubbery bed.
Orensten first called to the stand Glen Simmonds, a maintenance supervisor at the Duluth campus. He testified that no work would have been done on the Natural Resources Research Institute before July 1 that year, contrary to Orensten’s statement that construction was in progress at the time and place of the accident.
Orensten also called himself to the stand and told the jury that he went to pick up a cigarette he was smoking, stepped into the shrubbery bed, and sunk deep in the dirt because it had been raining. He said he decided to step into the bed because he saw other people had worn a path through it.
Because he couldn’t pay for his medical bills, Orensten spent three years living in his 1979 van, he told the eight-person jury.
“It’s really hard to get a date when you’re living in your car,” he said. “At least until the laughter subsides.”
During cross-examination, Plunkett asked why Orensten changed his story from when he explained it to his first lawyer. Orensten said he was in a lot of pain because of the leg and couldn’t quite communicate what he meant.
Plunkett then produced a climate report taken from the Duluth Airport that showed only .08 inches of rain fell between May 15 and May 24, 1993.
“I swear to you they were all lying on the stand,” Orensten said of the witnesses that took the stand.
Orensten said he would not appeal the verdict.
“The bottom line is: Don’t fuck with the people in power,” Orensten said. “(The decision) would be the same in appeals. It’s bizarre.”