Court backs Federal Signal in hearing loss case
- Original Chicago Tribune article: Court backs Federal Signal in hearing loss case
Federal Signal Corp. said a state court jury in Cook County found in its favor in a civil case in which 27 firefighters had claimed they suffered hearing loss from being exposed to the loud fire-truck sirens that Federal Signal manufactures.
The Oak Brook company, which makes a variety of products ranging from street-sweeping equipment to police-car light bars, said the jury took less than two hours to reach its verdict and reject the firefighters' claims.
Federal Signal currently faces more than 30 such hearing-loss lawsuits, brought on behalf of about 2,500 firefighters.
The bulk of the cases, some of which date back to 1999, have been filed in Cook County.
The company's position is that the product-liability suits are 'without merit,' and that fire-engine sirens have to be loud in order to serve their public-safety purpose of alerting traffic to the approach of speeding fire trucks.
The trial that began in march and ended this week represents the first of the Chicago suits to reach trial, Federal said.
A second trial, with different plaintiffs pressing the same claim, is expected to open in June, according to documents Federal Signal filed earlier this year with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and 'thereafter, trials involving other Chicago fire fighters are scheduled to take place every four months.'
Federal Signal's 10-K filing also notes that the company has been sued outside of Cook County by a 'relatively small number of plaintiffs,' with 24 plaintiffs filing a total of 15 lawsuits in four states.
In January of 2008, the company said, a state court in New York dismissed four such cases in response to a motion from Federal Signal's attorneys.
The hearing-damage claims have come up before: In 1999, Federal Signal's filing says, the company 'successfully defended approximately 41 similar cases in Philadelphia' in a series of jury trials.
jpmiller@tribune.com
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