SCRANTON — A Mississippi widower filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging his wife died because a natural gas heater was manufactured with inherent design defects by a Mount Union company.
William Scott Etheridge, of Holly Springs, Mississippi, filed a complaint Feb. 14 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania alleging his wife, Doris Jean Etheridge, died after flames from a Kozy-World Wall Heater installed in their home “protruded outside of the grated barrier” on March 18, 2019, catching her shirt on fire and resulting in severe burns that led to her hospitalization and death. She passed away on April 1, 2019.
Etheridge alleged the heater had an inherent design defect and that it was used in his home without substantial change to the condition under which Kozy-World marketed and sold the product. He said the company “failed to conform with federal requirements for labels, warnings and instructions” and “knew or should have known that the product created significant risks of serious bodily harm and death to consumers.”
World Marketing of America, which is known as Kozy-World, is based in Mount Union.
Etheridge is represented by Jaime Jackson of Lancaster.