MEDIA - A man targeted with a defamation lawsuit after complaining about a mosquito eradication machine is now suing its maker, claiming it was using the court system to bully him.
A lawsuit was recently filed in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas by Colin Purrington, a former associate professor of biology at Swarthmore College, against AC2T, Inc., also known as Spartan Mosquito.
The defendant is a for-profit Mississippi corporation that manufactures and sells a product called the Spartan Mosquito Eradicator.
Purrington alleges that the product, which claims to eradicate mosquitoes for up to 90 days, does not work as advertised and is incapable of killing mosquitoes or decreasing the mosquito population. He further alleges that the company was aware of this ineffectiveness but continued to sell the product in pursuit of profit and disregard for public health and safety.
Purrington contacted government agencies about the Eradicator and blogged about it, leading Spartan to file a defamation lawsuit.
But Spartan also settled a class action for $3.6 million and agreed to no longer manufacture or sell the Eradicator. Purrington says this shows the defamation case was baseless.
Purrington accuses Spartan of violating the Dragonetti Act through wrongful use of civil proceeding against him.
Trevor Serine represents Purrington.