Collapse of pumpkin-tent store prompts lawsuit
Halloween Express insurer suing two firms
It could be the first collapsing pumpkin dispute to find its way into federal court here. Jon Majdoch hopes it will be the last.
Last year, the veteran Milwaukee Halloween merchant had an idea.
Since the 1990s, he’d been operating temporary costume shops under the Halloween Express name. The business has been best-known for its pumpkin-tent stores — bright orange, 100-foot-diameter, inflatable structures Majdoch set up in high-visibility spots along I-94 and on South 27th Street.
While the tents have had problems — high winds have blown down the one along the freeway in the past — they’re also popular with customers.
“There’s nothing better than seeing a little kid walk into a giant pumpkin,” Majdoch said this week. “They’re just in awe.”
Why not try a downsized version of the concept, he thought, and if it works, set up others in the future.
So, according to court documents, he ordered a custom-made inflatable pumpkin from Larger Than Life Inflatables, a California firm whose product line includes a Coca-Cola dome with entry through a huge blow-up bottle, a 20-foot-tall inflatable Budweiser can and lots of those tube figures that dance in the wind outside tire stores
and car dealerships.
Another California company, House of Bounce, built the big pumpkin, according to court documents.
Last September, Halloween Express set up the pumpkin in the parking lot of a Stein’s Garden & Home store on South 108th Street in Greenfield. For a few weeks, all was good. Then, on Oct. 14, it rained — “really, really, really hard,” Majdoch said.
Mitchell International Airport, about 7 miles away, got a half-inch of rain over two hours that day — a healthy dose, but not a downpour by Milwaukee standards.
In any event, Majdoch said, the rain pooled on the tent and its flat roof.
“I think it almost had like a divot at the top where it collected water,” he said.
Down came the pumpkin, allegedly damaging goods inside and leaving Majdoch unable to sell costumes, masks and such at the location for the two weeks leading up to Halloween.
His insurer, Hastings Mutual, paid Halloween Express $101,744 in damages. Now, Hastings is suing House of Bounce and Larger Than Life Inflatables, alleging that the pumpkin contained design and manufacturing defects.
While Larger Than Life didn’t make the pumpkin, it should be held liable because House of Bounce is uninsured and Hastings may not be able to enforce a judgment against the manufacturer, the insurance company says in its complaint.
In a response, Larger Than Life blamed Halloween Express for the collapse, saying any failure was caused largely or entirely by the retailer’s “own negligence in the erection, maintenance or operation of the pumpkin.”
Larger Than Life also asserted that it bears no liability even if the pumpkin was defective.
House of Bounce did not respond to inquiries about the case.
As for Majdoch, who didn’t file the lawsuit but whose company is named as an involuntary plaintiff, he’s getting ready for the upcoming Halloween season, but without the smaller pumpkins.
“We’re just going to stick to our big tents,” he said.