Snowmobile Mechanic Wins $57 Million In Suit
A mechanic who came up with an idea for a snowmobile fuel-injection system won a $57 million court award against companies he sued for stealing his invention.
The federal jury ruling Friday came after nine years of legal battles between Ron Chasteen and snowmobile maker Polaris Industries of Minneapolis and supplier Fuji Heavy Industries of Tokyo.
At issue was an electronic fuel-injection system for two-stroke snowmobile engines, which Chasteen brainstormed at his snowmobile shop in the Arizona mountains.
“My customers were constantly getting stranded,” Chasteen said. He believed an electronic fuel system would better adjust to different conditions at high altitude.
Chasteen said he kept developing the system after his business folded in the mid-1980s, presenting his prototype to Polaris in 1986.
“When they saw it, they said that on a scale of one to 10, I’d hit a 12,” Chasteen said. “They said it was the greatest advance they’d ever seen in the snowmobile industry.”
Chasteen shared more information with the manufacturer over a two-year period - at which point the company said it had shelved plans to use it.
When Chasteen, who had moved to Colorado, saw a Polaris advertisement for a new, fuel-injected snowmobile with an engine manufactured by Fuji, he was shocked and angry.
Chasteen called a lawyer, beginning a long, expensive trip through the legal system.
“There’s no doubt it was Ron who won the case for us,” said his attorney, John Janka. “This was a blatant misappropriation of his ideas. In America, you can’t steal people’s ideas and not pay.”
The jury awarded $24 million in compensatory damages against Polaris, plus $10 million in punitive damages. Against Fuji, the jury awarded $15 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in exemplary damages.
Chasteen now lives in Missouri with his wife and family, doing research and development for Echlin Engine Systems.
“I never got my hopes too high, or too low,” he said. “I put all my faith in the jury and the Lord.”