HOUSTON – A defective trailer hitch is the focus of a Brazos County man’s product liability lawsuit.
Guy Miller, Jr. brought the suit against Automatic Equipment Manufacturing Co., doing business as Blue Ox, on Apr. 12 in Houston federal court over the product in question, a SwayPro anti-sway and weight distribution system.
Court papers show that Miller purchased a Lance RV trailer from a dealer in Florida in April 2017. The purchase included the installation of the trailer hitch, which connected the trailer to Miller’s Honda Pilot.
The next month, Miller took the RV on a camping trip in Hunt.
Upon his return to his College Station home, the original petition says, the plaintiff began to unhook the SwayPro anti-sway system.
He claims he unhooked the first turn-buckle without incident, but when working on the second one, the company-issued wrench he was using “spun out of control, flew out of (his) hands and into the side of (his) face.”
“The impact broke the plaintiff’s cheekbone and orbital wall and ruptured the globe of the plaintiff’s left eye,” the suit says. “The plaintiff was hospitalized and has had two surgeries and lost sight in his left eye.”
Consequently, Miller seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
W. Jeff Paradowski of the Law Offices of W. Jeff Paradowski, P.C. in College Station is representing the complainant.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 4:18-CV-1156