Menards Sues Georgia Firm Over Moving Walkway Injuries

Menards is suing a Georgia company for personal injury claims tied to moving walkways installed in some of the Wisconsin-based home improvement chain’s stores.

Menards filed the lawsuit against ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corp. last week in Eau Claire County Court, The Leader-Telegram reported. The suit alleges the elevator company breached its contract, broke Wisconsin product warranty laws and failed to assume defense in two pending injury cases.

The warranty required ThyssenKrupp to make repairs within a week of being notified about an issue with the walkways. The warranty ended in April 2015.

Multiple customers at a store in northwest Indiana filed claims against Menards after experiencing injuries. Some customers were injured after they were knocked down by shopping carts that were caught in the moving walkway, the court filing said.

Menards sought walkway inspections, changes to prevent injuries and for ThyssenKrupp to be responsible for defending injury claims in a November 2014 letter to the firm.

“The moving walkways installed in the Schererville store appears to have a very disproportionate number of injury claims compared to the other moving walkways that are in use throughout our company,” James Anderson, Menards’ corporate legal manager, wrote in the letter.

Menards then wrote a follow-up letter to the company in March 2015 after receiving no response. The letter said Menards would pursue its own changes and bill the company for the costs.

Menards has already settled two injury claims, one of which ThyssenKrupp did pay a settlement for. Two cases remain pending.

A ThyssenKrupp spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit. The company has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit.