WILLIAMSPORT – A Minnesota company has been substituted as a defendant in litigation concerning the death of a Centre County man’s wife, due to an alleged defect in an aftermarket device for all-terrain vehicles which it sold.
Larry K. Martz (Executor of the Estate of Margaret E. Martz, his wife) of Port Matilda first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Sept. 7 versus Kolpin Outdoors, Inc. of Plymouth, Minn.
“Larry K. Martz and his wife, Margaret E. Martz, regularly used ATVs in their daily life for work and recreation. On June 1, 2020, Mr. Martz ordered a Kolpin Throttle Master from online power sports distributor, denniskirk.com. The Kolpin Throttle Master is a device marketed and sold to ATV riders as a safe after-market addition to their machines, that allows more precise throttle control and eliminates fatigued and sore thumbs,” the suit said.
“Mr. Martz mounted the Kolpin Throttle Master to his wife’s 2019 Honda Rancher ATV upon receipt. During the afternoon of Sept. 12, 2020, Mr. and Mrs. Martz attached a trailer to the 2019 Honda Rancher ATV to assist in hauling brush around their property. While operating the ATV at a slow crawl, and with her husband riding in the trailer to hold down a light load of brush, the defective Kolpin Throttle Master caused Mrs. Martz to lose throttle control.”
The suit added that the ATV accelerated suddenly, throwing Mr. Martz from the trailer and leading him to watch the ATV run down his property’s gravel driveway at full speed with the trailer fish-tailing behind it until it was out of sight.
“Mr. Martz found his wife at the bottom of the driveway face-down under the trailer with the ATV on its side nearby. She was unresponsive and bleeding from her head. Emergency responders transported the decedent via ambulance to Mount Nittany Medical Center before she was life-flighted to Geisinger Medical Center – Danville that evening. Mrs. Martz died on Sept. 13, 2020 and her cause of death was listed as ‘multiple blunt force injuries,” the suit stated.
“The Kolpin Throttle Master was defective in that it was manufactured and designed in such a way that that the defendant knew it would contact and become stuck upon the handle bar grips of ATVs that it was installed on, resulting in a fixed open throttle scenario like that which claimed Mrs. Martz’s life.”
UPDATE
On Feb. 17, the parties stipulated to substitute the defendant party.
“Plaintiff Larry K. Martz and defendant Kolpin Outdoors, Inc., by and through their respective counsel, hereby stipulate and agree that: 1) Polaris Sales Inc. (doing business as “Kolpin Outdoors, Inc.”), a Minnesota corporation, shall be substituted as the proper party defendant, replacing Kolpin Outdoors, Inc.; 2) Service of process upon the proper party defendant, Polaris Sales Inc., is waived; and 3) This stipulation of parties for substitution of proper party defendant will not affect or impact this Court’s jurisdiction,” per the stipulation.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Matthew W. Brann approved the stipulated defendant party substitution the same day, Feb. 17.
For counts of survival, wrongful death, strict liability, negligence and breach of warranty, the plaintiff is seeking damages in excess of the applicable arbitration limits of this Court.
The plaintiff is represented by Philip C. Chapman and Victor H. Pribanic of Pribanic & Pribanic, in White Oak.
The defendant is represented by Michael J. Montgomery and Sheila M. Prendergast of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff, in Cleveland, Ohio and Chicago, Ill. respectively.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case 4:22-cv-01390
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com