SACRAMENTO – A Stanislaus County couple alleges the husband's arms were amputated while he was cleaning a defective machine as part of his job duties.
Raul Zamudio and Soledad Zamudio filed a complaint on Nov. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California against FMC Corp. and Does 1-20 alleging product liability.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that on July 2, 2015, Raul Zamudio was an employee of Heinz and had been assigned to clean a certain paddle pulper/finisher machine, which was manufactured and distributed by the defendant. While performing his usual duties of cleaning the machine in its off position, the suit states the machine suddenly started and its mechanism cycled once, which caught Zamudio by both arms and caused bi-lateral amputation. The plaintiffs allege he now requires the use of therapeutic prosthetics and has suffered a loss of earnings, mental anguish, depression and loss of consortium of his wife.
The plaintiffs hold FMC Corp. and Does 1-20 responsible because the defendants allegedly failed to warn operators of the machine's substantial risk of harm and design defect, and failed to manufacture an adequately safe machine that has an interlocking safety device that would prevent the machine from starting up while in the off position.
The plaintiffs request a trial by jury and seek judgment against defendants, damages, statutory remedies, interest, attorneys' fees and further relief as the court may deem just. They are represented by Federico Castelan Sayre, Boris Treyzon and Alexander J. Perez of Abir Cohen Treyzon Salo APLC in Santa Ana.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California Case number 2:16-cv-02693