Published: October 29, 2008 04:40 pm      

Lawsuit filed over toddler's death in house fire

The family of a toddler killed in a fire in north Corbin has filed suit against the maker of an electric heating pad that firefighters say may have sparked the blaze.

London attorney Warren Scoville provided copies of the complaint filed in the 27th Judicial Circuit Court.

In the suit, the family contends negligence on the part of Wal-Mart, Dunlap, the company that made the heating pad, and J.T. Thomas, who managed the London Wal-Mart Store when the pad was sold.

“At the time Plaintiffs purchased the said heating pad from defendant, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Store No. 1113), said heating pad was in a defective condition, unreasonably dangerous to expected users or consumers, including Plaintiffs, and Defendant, KAZ, Inc., was negligent in the design, manufacture, production, advertising, marketing, distribution, and sale of said heating pad to Defendant, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and ultimately to Plaintiffs, and in failing to adequately warn of the dangers thereof.”

Scoville asserts in the suit that each of the defendants “had legal duties to be aware of the known dangerous properties of products being put in the stream of commerce, not to offer unreasonably, unsafe products for sale to the public, to give adequate warnings of known dangers (among other legal duties), and knew, or should have known, that the subject heating pad was in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to users or consumers in that the advertised and promoted automatic shut-off feature of said heating pad could malfunction or fail to prevent the heating pad from overheating and causing a fire, because both KAZ, Inc., and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., had been sued for such defects, failures and fires before,” the suit states.

The suit charges the defendants with personal injury, two counts of loss of parental consortium, past medical expenses, pain and suffering prior to death, and funeral expenses, permanent destruction of the power to earn money and property damage.

“At all relevants times herein, Defendant, KAZ, Inc., Defendant, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Store #1113), and J.T. Thomas, individually, knew or should have known, of the defective and unreasonably dangerous condition of the subject heating pad by virtue of prior complaints and lawsuits concerning the safety of said product.”

The defendants are requesting reimbursement for medical expenses, funeral expenses, pain and suffering, and permanent destruction of the power to earn money.

Officials at County Court Clerk Roger Schott’s office said no court date has set for the case.