The maker of special scuba diving equipment faces allegations that its products can malfunction leading to the possible injury or death of divers.
Ralph Huntzinger filed the lawsuit May 21 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California against Aqua Lung America alleging its dive computers' software can malfunction giving the diver inaccurate information on a dive.
The dive computer gives vital information including dive time, water temperature, estimated remaining air time and air tank pressure. Improper information can result in “serious injury or death to the diver,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges Aqua Lung is aware of the issue and usually will try to replace the battery on a faulty dive computer.
“If the dive computer continues to malfunction with a new battery, and it is still under warranty, the dive computer is replaced with a new dive computer because the defective software/hardware cannot be repaired,” the suit said.
Huntzinger seeks class status in the suit, and also seeks more than $5 million in damages plus court costs.
Huntzinger is represented by attorneys Timothy G. Blood and Paula M. Roach of Blood Hurst & O'Reardon in San Diego; John A. Knox and Douglass A. Hofmann of Williams, Kastner & Gibbs in Seattle; and William A. Berman and Alicia M. Siminou of Berman & Riedel, also in San Diego.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California case number 3:15-cv-01146.