Best Buy petitions U.S. District Court to take jurisdiction over injury claim by Phila. couple

A Bucks County lawyer representing Best Buy in a personal injury case filed last month by a Philadelphia couple has filed a petition to transfer the civil action from state court to federal court.

Attorney Francis W. Worthington, of the Jamison, Pa. firm Worthington & Worthington, filed a notice of removal on Sept. 12 at the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia seeking to move a lawsuit initiated by husband and wife Kevin and Donna Jackson from the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The couple, who reside in Philadelphia’s Roxborough neighborhood, are suing the electronics retailer over an Aug. 20, 2011, incident at the Best Buy store at 9940 Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia in which Kevin Jackson alleges he sustained numerous injuries after falling over a flatbed cart that had been negligently left in the aisle way.

Jackson maintains that employees working for the defendant were negligent when they caused the obstruction in an area frequented by shoppers.

The plaintiff claims that as a result of his fall he sustained numerous physical injuries, including disc herniations and an aggravation of pre-existing degenerative disc disease, spinal cord compression, both thoracic and lumbar sprain and strain, knee and elbow contusions, carpal tunnel syndrome, and trapezius sprain and strain.

The plaintiffs claim that they had to spend large sums of money to treat Kevin Jackson’s injuries.

The husband also alleges that his injuries have prevented him from attending to his daily activities and duties.

The lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 in damages, plus attorney’s fees, litigation costs and other relief.

In his removal petition, Worthington, Best Buy’s counsel, wrote that the case should be litigated in federal court because there is diversity of citizenship among the parties, and due to the fact that the amount in controversy is likely to exceed $75,000, not the $50,000 the plaintiffs say they are after.

An action is removable to U.S. District Court, Worthington wrote, if the damages sought are likely to be in the range of $75,000 or more.

The lawsuit contains claims of negligence and loss of consortium.

The Jackson’s are being represented by attorney Salvatore Larussa, Jr., of the Law Offices of Stephen W. Bruccoleri, who filed the suit on Aug. 8 in Common Pleas Court.

 

The federal case number is 2:13-cv-05315-TON.