Property damage suit filed against Electrolux Home Products over dryer-causing fire

A Montgomery County couple has filed a property damage complaint against the makers

of a clothes dryer that the plaintiffs contend malfunctioned, causing a fire to erupt in their home and cause massive damage.

Christopher and Christine Monastero, of Schwenksville, Pa., are suing Georgia-based Electrolux Home Products Inc. over claims that the defendant’s Frigidaire-brand dryer malfunctioned on May 13, 2011, and led to a blaze that caused “extensive damage” to the plaintiffs’ real and personal property.

Electrolux, the lawsuit says, is in the business of designing, assembling, manufacturing, selling, distributing, and/or marketing the Frigidaire dryer.

The lawsuit accuses the defendant of negligence for failing to put together and distribute a properly functioning dryer, failing to properly inspect and test the product before putting it on the marketplace, failing to determine that the dryer was not in compliance with applicable standards, and selling the device when the company knew, or should have known, that the dryer could malfunction.

The suit also says Electrolux failed to adequately warn customers of the dangers and hazardous conditions associated with the dryer, failing to perform services in accordance with governmental specifications and standards, and violating the standards of care prescribed by statutes, rules, regulations and industry customs.

In addition to the negligence count, the lawsuit also contains counts of breach of warranties and strict liabilities, in which the plaintiffs contend the defendant falsely implied that the product was free of defects, and also that the machine had design defects, manufacturing defects, component defects, and user-instruction and/or warnings defects.

The plaintiffs seek damages in excess of $100,000, claiming that that is the amount of monetary hardship they suffered in the wake of the fire allegedly caused by the defendant’s defective dryer.

The couple also seeks costs, delay damages and attorney’s fees.

The complaint was filed May 6 at the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia by Blue Bell, Pa. attorneys Daniel J. de Luca and Patrick A. Hughes, of the firm Nelson Levine de Luca & Horst LLC.

 

The federal case number is 2:13-cv-02458-PBT.