PHILADELPHIA – Allentown’s Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom water park and its contractors have petitioned to have a lawsuit resulting from a man’s leg being amputated moved to the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas.
In three separate motions for preliminary objections filed on June 16, June 24 and July 6, Heather M. Eichenbaum, Joseph S. D’Amico Jr. and Virginia King, respectively, each argued that the catastrophic accident which led Anthony Dos Santos III of North Myrtle Beach, S.C., to file suit should be heard in Lehigh County.
Defense counsel mutually hold this view due to the plaintiff’s accident taking place in Lehigh County, and the case allegedly having no bearing to Philadelphia County.
The other defendants are Cedar Fair LP of Allentown, Whitewater West Industries of Richmond, B.C. and Orlando Diefenderfer Electrical Contractors of Allentown
Alternatively, Eichenbaum seeks dismissal of Dos Santos’s complaint without prejudice, in order for him to re-file in the proper venue.
King also seeks two paragraphs relating to violation of safety regulations to be deleted from Dos Santos’s complaint, due to his alleged failure to properly name and outline those regulations.
A hearing in this matter was set for Wednesday at Philadelphia City Hall, in Court chambers.
On April 23, 2014, Dos Santos’s co-worker used a forklift to transfer a support beam across a narrow bridge at the water park, while Dos Santos guided him in doing so. Simultaneously and in the same area, Orlando Diefenderfer operated a four-wheel ATV over the same bridge, proceeding in the opposite direction from where the forklift moved, the complaint says.
In the process, he ran over Dos Santos’s right foot, causing “serious, permanent and painful” personal injuries, including a crushed right foot and fractured right fibula, resulting in amputation below the right knee, the complaint says. Dos Santos alleged Cedar Fair was negligent in failing to provide a safe work site and qualified contractors.
The plaintiff is seeking a sum, jointly and severally, in excess of $50,000, plus interest and costs from all defendants in this case.
The plaintiff is represented by Tyler Tomlinson of Stark & Stark, in Yardley.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 150502858
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nickpennrecord@gmail.com