Man's estate sues John Deere over allegedly fatal backhoe design

The estate of man killed while operating a backhoe loader is suing the manufacturer for an allegedly unsafe design.

Jose Andrade Jr., as representative of the estate of Jose Magdaleno Andrade Sr., filed a complaint on May 8 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against John Deere, also known as Deer and Co.

On Feb. 3, 2015, Andrade Sr. was driving a Deere backhoe loader when the bucket arm killed him by pinning him against the body of the backhoe.

"The injury occurred, " the lawsuit states, "because the product .. was not reasonably designed, manufactured, marketed, assembled, processed, forged and/or tested nor reasonably fit for unintended, but clearly foreseen incidents. The product in question was unreasonably dangerous in the event it should be involved in an incident such as occurred herein because defendant lacked any built-in design features meant to prevent this form of injury, and therefore was not equipped with any prevention of bucket loader swinging into a position in which it could crush the user resulting in injuries and/or death."

The plaintiff seeks unspecified actual damages, pre- and post-judgment interest starting on Feb. 2, 2015 and court costs.

The plaintiff is represented by attorneys E. Todd Tracy, Stewart D. Matthews and Andrew G. Counts in Dallas.

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas case no. 5:15-cv-00044.