Verdict Against Retailer in Product Liability Case
By Jaimee Wolbert
Published on March 01, 2006
Jonathan Pettengill, 12, and Katherine Pettengill, 10, were killed in an early morning apartment fire in July 2001. The children's mother, Dawn Driggott, was at work at the time of the fire and the children were home alone.
The lawsuit alleged that the fire was caused by a faulty power cord that came with a Compaq computer purchased at a National Rent-To-Own retail store.
Driggott settled with the manufacturer of the computer and with Canon USA, the printer manufacturer, as well as National Rent-To-Own's distributor, BDI-Laguna, for undisclosed sums before the suit went to trial.
During the trial, National Rent-To-Own denied that the power cord was faulty, but a St. Louis jury found in favor of Driggott.
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