PHILADELPHIA – A lawsuit from a South Carolina woman who claimed she was scalded by an exploding tea kettle manufactured by a Bucks County company has been settled.
Lisa Maseng of Columbia, S.C. initially filed suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Aug. 19 versus Lenox Corporation of Bristol and John Doe defendants 1-10.
The case was later removed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Sept. 15, based upon grounds of diversity of citizenship and the amount of damages in controversy.
The alleged incident took place Oct. 6, 2018, when Maseng was boiling water for tea. She said the Lenox Profile 2.5 Quart Stainless Steel Whistling Tea Kettle was in the same condition as when she bought it new at a Tuesday Morning store in Richland County, South Carolina.
“The product model involved in plaintiff’s accident was subsequently the subject of a product recall as a result of its burn hazard following other instances in which the same product model similarly exploded and/or expelled hot water through the top, thereby resulting in injuries to end consumers of the product,” the suit said.
The plaintiff argued that the defendants failed to protect her and other users from the exploding tea kettle and did not warn of the possibility of the device to react in that manner.
After Maseng motioned to have the case remanded to the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Sept. 18, Lenox Corporation respectfully requested that it be allowed to withdraw its notice of removal three days later, on Sept. 21.
On Sept. 23, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Chad F. Kenney ordered the case remanded to state court.
“Upon consideration of defendant Lenox Corporation’s motion to withdraw notice of removal, it is hereby ordered that defendant Lenox Corporation’s motion to withdraw notice of removal is granted and this case is remanded back to the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas,” Kenney said.
UPDATE
Subsequently to the case being remanded to the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, it later reached a settlement on Nov. 17. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
“Kindly mark the above-captioned matter settled, discontinued and ended,” a praecipe from plaintiff counsel stated.
Prior to settlement and for multiple counts of strict liability negligence, product liability negligence, breach of warranty and reckless conduct justifying punitive damages, the plaintiff was seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $50,000.
The plaintiff was represented by Brandon A. Swartz and Bryan Michael Ferris of Swartz Culleton, in Newtown.
Defendant Lenox Corporation was represented by R. Erick Chizmar of the Law Offices of Jeffrey H. Eiseman, in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas case 200801693
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:20-cv-04522
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com