FedEx employee sues over leaky box

The company is confident there was no wrongdoing.
WARREN -- A FedEx employee from Mineral Ridge is suing an Adrian, Mich., company and one of its employees for injuries she alleged she received when a package from the company leaked a hazardous liquid.
Lonnie Marie Bickerstaff, of Morris Street, filed the suit Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, naming Brazeway Inc. and Brazeway receptionist Kathy Hoover as defendants.
Bickerstaff seeks in excess of $5 million in her eight-count complaint.
The lawsuit says the package was shipped via FedEx overnight mail to RL Best Co. in Boardman. When Bickerstaff picked up the package July 20, 2005, she noticed it had started to leak while on her route.
She bagged the package and noticed it had no sticker on it identifying it as hazardous. She then cleaned up the liquid, which she said was possibly paint.
About 10 to 15 minutes later, she had a reaction consisting of eyes burning and watering, nose running, hands burning, lungs and throat burning, trouble breathing and a headache. She went to the emergency room at St. Elizabeth Health Center.
Bickerstaff says in the lawsuit that she incurred more than $8,000 in medical expenses and sustained permanent damage. She expects future permanent partial disability.
Their stance
Brazeway President Stephanie Boyse said Hoover is a longtime and competent employee and said, "We're confident that there was no wrongdoing."
"As we understand it, it was a very minor, simple and normal shipping process and package," Boyse said. She said Brazeway is a manufacturer of aluminum components for the automotive and appliance industries.
The case is assigned to Judge Peter Kontos.