BANGOR – A federal jury on Wednesday awarded a Prentiss Township boy $215,000 for injuries he suffered in a gruesome accident two years ago when his father accidentally backed over him with a riding lawn mower, severing his right kneecap.

Allan Smith, now 8, was not present for the verdict, which was read at 6 p.m. after 51/2 hours of jury deliberation. The exact amount of the award was $215,238.75.

While the eight-member jury awarded the boy damages for pain and suffering, the panel awarded the parents nothing on their claims.

Wayne and Shelley Smith registered no emotion when the verdict was read. The young couple declined to comment at the conclusion of the three-day products liability trial at U.S. District Court.

Their attorney, Warren Silver of Bangor, said he was disappointed with the award.

“I was hoping the jury would give the parents money, given these type of injuries,” Silver said outside the federal courtroom on Harlow Street. Silver earlier said he was hoping for an award of $500,000 to $700,000. After the verdict, he said it was too soon to decide if it would be appealed.

Maine Chief U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby presided at the trial, in which the Smiths and their son had sued Wal-Mart Inc., the seller, and MTD Products, the manufacturer, of a riding law mower they had bought for $799 on sale and had owned for about an hour before the machine malfunctioned, gravely injuring their son. Bloody pictures of a kneecap flipped upside down on the boy’s leg predominated the many visual presentations at the trial.

Attorneys for Wal-Mart and MTD Products said the award was a compromise verdict and made a statement about who the jury believed was most negligent in the matter.

“That jury concluded what MTD and Wal-Mart claimed, that there was substantial operator error” in the incident, said Portland lawyer Harold Friedman, who made a point of noting the Smiths are loving, caring parents. He said the case “reinforces the notion that whether equipment is in working order or not, it presents a hazard parents should be aware of and the jury was well able to ferret that out.”

Wayne and Shelley Smith each had asked the jury to award them damages for severe emotional distress for witnessing the mishap, which resulted in emergency surgery and a 16-day hospital stay for Allan Smith, then 6. The winsome, bespectacled boy appeared in court on Tuesday and showed the jury his scarred knee and upper right thigh, where a skin graft had been performed to cover the damaged knee after surgery.

He required two operations and was anesthetized five times as a result of his injury. Allan Smith’s medical bills totaled $65,000, according to information brought out in court.

The boy’s prognosis is good, though he will have scars for the rest of his life. He is able to run, walk, swim and play like any 8-year-old. Damage to a knee plate may affect his leg growth on the right side, although there is no evidence of that occurring yet, according to medical testimony.

The jury decided Wal-Mart and MTD Products caused the boy’s injuries by selling a defective and unreasonably dangerous product, according to the verdict form. They also decided the companies had breached an implied warranty of merchantability, which, according to state law, means an unspoken commitment to sell products in reasonably safe condition.

At the same time, the jury apparently believed the defense claim that the boy’s parents were somewhat negligent in their supervision of him on the day of the accident. Allan Smith appeared by the side of the operating lawn mower as his father drove it up the family driveway, according to court testimony. His mother stood at the head of the long driveway and told her 16-year-old brother to accompany the excited boys – Allan and his 2-year-old brother, Jordan – to see the new mower.

“Allan Smith had to be awfully close to that lawnmower” to get sucked under, Friedman said in closing arguments.

Asked what message the jury was sending about the parents, Silver said, “The jury must have believed Wayne and Shelley were negligent.”

Earlier in the day the judge, jury, attorneys and others viewed the gleaming red riding lawnmower located in a parking lot at the back of the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building.

Wayne Smith testified he has not used the lawnmower since the day of the accident, except to test-drive it for films presented at the trial.

While court reporter Julie Edgecomb sat in a loading dock area working on her transcription machine, Gunter Plamper, vice president of product development and safety at MTD’s Cleveland, Ohio, headquarters, started the machine and demonstrated some of its features at the request of defense co-counsel Rick Coyne. He pointed to “witness marks” on the bottom of the machine that indicated a vital spring and pair of brackets had been installed when the lawnmower left the factory at Indianola, Miss.

Attorney Silver had claimed the spring and brackets were missing from the machine when Wayne Smith bought it at the Lincoln Wal-Mart on July 25, 1999, prompting the tragedy.

“Wayne Smith has to live the rest of his life hearing his son scream, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’ as he went under that lawn mower,” Silver said during his closing argument.