PITTSBURGH – A Pittsburgh couple whose family member died in a house fire allegedly caused by a hover board has filed a lawsuit alleging that the board's distributors and marketers sold a defective product.
According to the Sept. 5 Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas filing, plaintiffs Edward and Tamara Ruggieri, as natural guardians of A.S., a minor; Ethan Ruggieri; and Tamara Ruggieri, as the administrix of the estate of Harriet Stacey, filed the civil suit against Cowboy Wholesale Corp. and TMD Holdings LLC alleging negligence and other counts.
The suit states the plaintiffs purchased two hover boards from Ninja Electronics in December 2015, which were marketed, branded and sold by the defendants.
In October of 2017, the plaintiffs allege their hover boards were charging when they overheated and ignited. Harriet Stacey died in the house fire.
"(U)nbeknownst to plaintiffs, the hover boards purchased were in a defective condition, inter alia, in that they (a) were prone to overcharge and/or overheat and burn and ignite in flames, and (b) did not employ the proper safeguards to prevent it from overheating, burning, and/or catching fire, despite the existence of safer, economically feasible alternative designs that would prevented them from overcharging and/or overheating; and (c) they did not contain adequate warnings and/or instructions to alert a user to the Hover board's propensity to overcharge and/or overheat and burn and ignite in flames," the plaintiffs state in their suit.
The plaintiffs are represented by Ryan Zeli of Zimmer Kunz PLLC in Pittsburgh.