PITTSBURGH – A federal judge has been asked to dismiss a negligence claim filed against a siren manufacturer due to lack of jurisdiction.
Federal Signal filed its motion to dismiss March 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in a lawsuit that also names Ox Bodies as a defendant.
Ox Bodies is an indirect subsidiary of Federal Signal, a siren manufacturer. According to court documents, Federal Signal, which is based in Illinois, designs and manufactures sirens for emergency vehicles such as fire engines. Federal Signal plays no role whatsoever in the design, manufacture, sale, or distribution of dump truck bodies, it says.
Sam Bibbee sued Ox Bodies for alleged negligence after he sustained permanent injuries from a fall of roughly 6 feet while climbing a ladder on a dump truck that Ox Bodies designed and manufactured. He sued for strict liability for Ox Bodies’ alleged failure to develop a safe ladder and for negligence claiming Ox Bodies was "careless in not only creating, designing and installing a defective ladder but also distributing and selling one."
Federal Signal submitted a request in March saying that its company "played no role in the design, manufacture, or distribution of the allegedly defective product at issue." The company argues Bibbee "has added Federal Signal as a party to this lawsuit in a misguided attempt to find a defendant affiliated with Ox Bodies that might be subject to personal jurisdiction in Pennsylvania."