PHILADELPHIA (BRAIN) — State Farm Insurance Company has filed an amended complaint against Rad Power Bikes, adding a Taiwanese bike manufacturer and a battery pack manufacturer as defendants, in its lawsuit on behalf of a homeowner who suffered property damage from a fire.
The complaint now names Fritz Jou Manufacturing, an OEM bike assembler, and TD HiTech Energy, a battery supplier, following a settlement conference Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The court scheduled an initial pre-trial conference to be held Feb. 23.
On Oct. 4, State Farm filed its original lawsuit on behalf of an insured homeowner client after his Rad Power e-bike caught fire at his home in Wycombe, Pennsylvania. The amended suit claims the TD HiTech Energy battery pack and charger malfunctioned and caused the fire. According to the lawsuit, damages were in excess of $250,000 to property and automobiles.
State Farm maintains the damages were the result of Rad Power Bikes' negligence "by and through its employees, agents, technicians, vendors, subcontractors ..."
A few days after the lawsuit was filed, Rad Power Bikes denied to BRAIN that one of its e-bikes started the residential fire.
