A court is deciding on Raymond's design safety PHOTO: DREAMSTIME.COM

The design of a Raymond forklift is being blamed for a 2014 workplace fatality at a Roanoke warehouse.

Family members of George Demian, who was killed at the Elizabeth Arden plant, made the allegations in a product liability lawsuit that is seeking USD10 million from the forklift's manufacturer, The Raymond Corp. of Greene, New York, according to a report in The Roanoke Times.

Demian was operating the forklift at the plant's warehouse when the accident happened.

According to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Roanoke, Demian was backing the forklift up when he struck a horizontal beam used to support shelves in the warehouse. The 44-year-old employee was pinned between the beam and the forklift, causing injuries that led to his death at the scene.

The forklift designed by Raymond lacked vertical rear posts, which would have prevented the horizontal beam from striking Demian, the lawsuit claims.

In claiming that the forklift was "unreasonably dangerous", the lawsuit states that Raymond offered rear posts on the piece of equipment as optional features, even though it knew they had been part of industry standards since the 1960s.

Also named in the lawsuit is Werres Corp., a Maryland company that serves as the distributor of equipment made by Raymond.

In court records, lawyers for Raymond and Werres deny most of the allegations. Because the pleadings did not identify the forklift by serial number, the response states, the two companies are unable to respond to specific claims made about its design.

The lawsuit was first filed in Roanoke Circuit Court in October last year, but was transferred to federal court, where legal disputes between parties located in different states are generally heard.