Former Wayland girls’ varsity bowling coach Bill Holbrook has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers of robotic equipment that killed his wife, Wanda, in an industrial accident in Ionia in July 2015.
Holbrook, now men’s and women’s bowling coach at Midland University in Nebraska, filed a suit earlier this month claiming his wife was doing routine maintenance in the welding department when the accident occurred. Her head was crushed and she died soon afterward at Ventra Ionia Main.
Matthew Wikander, Holbrook’s attorney from Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge, P.C. alleges that she was killed when the robot malfunctioned.
Holbrook contends he suffered “tremendous fright, shock and conscious pain” as a result.
The five companies are named as defendants in the suit are Prodomax Automation LTD., based in Canada; Flex-N-Gate LLC, FANUC America and Nachi Robotic Systems Inc., all based in Delaware, and Lincoln Electric Company, based in Ohio.
The suit insists the firms are guilty of a defect/negligent design and manufactur
ing defect under product liability laws.
“At all times, defendant FANUC, Nachi and Lincoln Electric owed a duty to Wanda and to the public to properly design, manufacture and test their products, including their robots, robot controllers, robot tooling, part fixtures, welding process equipment and/or safety devices involved in this case,” the suit states.
Those three companies are also accused of a breach of implied warrant under product liability law and failure to warn all potential users of the dangers associated with the use of their products. In total, the suit alleges nine counts of failure under product liability law.
“It all goes back to how this system was set up whether or not certain mechanical parts of the system failed,” Wikander said.
“Wanda did nothing wrong. Wanda was a very experienced professional and she never saw it coming. This was not her fault.”
The State of Michigan fined Ventra $7,000 for the death in 2016, but federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) records show fine was dismissed.
The lawsuit seeks damages of more than $75,000.
PHOTOS: Wanda Holbrook
Bill Holbrook
