Travelers Personal Insurance Company, The v. Techtronic Industries Factory Outlets, Inc.

On March 4, 2026, Travelers Personal Insurance Company, as subrogee of its insured homeowners, filed a product liability action against Techtronic Industries Factory Outlets, Inc. in the United States. The suit arose from a catastrophic residential fire on February 10, 2025, allegedly caused by a defective lithium-ion battery pack in a RYOBI cordless angle grinder manufactured by Techtronic. Travelers paid over $850,000 in property damage and additional living expenses to the insureds, then sought recovery from Techtronic under theories of strict liability, negligence, and breach of warranty, claiming the battery’s design lacked adequate thermal runaway protection. The case drew attention as part of a growing wave of subrogation claims targeting rechargeable tool battery fires.

As of the latest public record, the case remains in pre-trial discovery, with Techtronic contesting causation and moving to exclude plaintiff’s expert testimony on battery failure analysis.

Whether the lithium-ion battery pack was defectively designed or manufactured, and whether the insurer could establish causation linking the fire to Techtronic’s product without direct physical evidence of the battery post-fire.

The case underscores increasing legal scrutiny on rechargeable battery safety in consumer power tools and has prompted renewed calls for mandatory thermal runaway mitigation standards, while insurers intensify subrogation efforts against tool manufacturers following residential battery fires.