Lack of Specificity Dooms Class Action Over Fans

PHILADELPHIA (CN) - A federal judge dismissed a putative class-action over Lasko-brand box fans accused of starting fires.

Millions of "portable electric fans" comprising a slew of models were recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2006, according to the suit.

The fans were blamed for a raft of fires allegedly caused by an electrical malfunction in their motors, according to court records.

Lasko settled with the Commission for half-a-million dollars, but proceeded to sell similarly defective fans after the recall without disclosing "the continuing defective nature of the box fans," the suit said.

More fans were recalled in 2011, named plaintiff Deborah Osness alleged.

What Osness did not allege, however, is that her fan became inoperable, U.S. District Judge William Yohn Jr. found Tuesday.

Osness also failed to sufficiently allege that Pennsylvania-based Lasko knew of the supposed defect at the time she bought her fan, Yohn found.

Osness' lack of specificity is fatal to her case, he ruled, granting without prejudice Lasko's motion to dismiss.

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