Widow's suit against tree service dismissed without prejudice

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Robert LeChien dismissed a lawsuit filed by a woman against the tree service she blamed for causing her husband’s death.

According to the lawsuit, Amy Risinger alleged her husband Richard Risinger worked for defendants Andrew’s Tree Service and Andrew Jacobs on Nov. 18, 2011. He was feeding limbs into a wood chipper when his jacket became caught in the machine. He became entangled in the equipment and perished.

Because of her husband’s death, Amy Risinger alleged she had been deprived of his love, companionship, society, consortium and support, the suit filed Dec. 20 in St. Clair County Circuit Court stated.

The case was called for initial status conference March 19, then reset to May 29. A May 30 order was signed by LeChien, continuing the status conference to July 29.

Samantha Unsell, attorney for Amy Risinger, filed a motion to dismiss without prejudice on July 12. LeChien signed an order July 15, approving Unsell’s motion. LeChien’s order allowed the plaintiff leave to reinstate the case.

Risinger blamed the defendants for contributing to her husband’s death, saying they negligently failed to provide adequate training to workers using the wood chipper, failed to warn workers of the dangers of improperly loading branches into the wood chipper and demonstrated the improper way to load branches into the wood chipper.

Andrew's Tree Service and Andrew Jacobs are listed in court records as pro se defendants.

St. Clair County Circuit Court case number: 12-L-668.