Lawsuit: Ron Tirapelli Ford Made Customer Lift 400-Pound Part At Repair Shop, He Sustained Serious Injury

SHOREWOOD, IL — As the Shorewood Ron Tirapelli Ford dealership remains embroiled in a compensation lawsuit filed late last year by Tom Conlin, who is its general manager and dealer principal, Ron Tirapelli Ford, Inc. now finds itself in another lawsuit, this one brought by a customer who suffered severe injuries at the dealership in late June.

Plaintiff Joshua Fisher filed last week's lawsuit at the Will County Courthouse against Ron Tirapelli, the long-time Shorewood auto dealership at 4255 West Jefferson Street, near Interstate 55 and the frontage road. Fisher is being represented by Midwest Injury Lawyers, LLC on North Wacker Drive in Chicago.

According to the lawsuit, on June 27, 2025, Ron Tirapelli Ford performed automotive repair services for its customers and marketed itself as a full-service repair shop. Fisher was a customer and a patron of the auto repair shop.

Last June, Fisher received a phone call from Tirapelli Ford informing him that a Ford 6R140 transmission he had ordered was available for pickup. He arrived at the dealership and was told to go to a loading area on the outside of the auto repair shop to complete the pickup, court documents show.

The Tirapelli employees had the Ford transmission waiting on the cement ground with one employee of the auto repair shop there to complete the pickup; the transmission was a 16-quart six-speed transmission filled with Mercon LV ATF transmission fluid and attached to its torque converter, the lawsuit noted. The part weighed more than 400 pounds at the time of pickup.

The Ford 6R140 Transmission was conic in shape with one side wider and heavier and the other side narrower and lighter. According to the lawsuit, Tirapelli Ford instructed Fisher "to assist with lifting the 400-pound transmission out of its packaging without the assistance of other employees or any equipment suited for lifting heavy parts."

The one employee stood at the narrower, lighter side of the transmission and instructed Fisher to lift the wider, heavier side of the transmission, according to plaintiff's lawyer Brennan Hutson.

"The employee lifting the narrower, lighter side of the transmission began to set the 400-pound part on the ground before plaintiff was able to clear the wider, heavier side of the transmission and torque converter from over the edge of the packaging," the lawsuit reads. "The 400-pound torque dropped onto the top of plaintiff's ankle, causing immediate and severe personal injury to plaintiff."

Fisher's lawsuit accuses the Shorewood auto dealership of negligently and carelessly failing to use a forklift, crane or other machinery to lift the transmission box, negligently and carelessly having failed to institute policies and procedures that would prohibit customers from being required to lift heavy machinery with their hands and negligently and carelessly having dropped the transmission on plaintiff's lower extremity.

As a result of the June 27 mishap, Midwest Injury Lawyers contend, Fisher sustained severe injuries and was and will be hindered and prevented from attending to his usual duties and affairs of life. The lawsuit asserts that Fisher "became liable for and will expend and become liable for large sums of money for medical care and services endeavoring to become healed and cured of said injuries."

Last week's lawsuit seeks a 12-person Will County jury demand and a judgment in excess of $50,000 for Fisher against Ron Tirapelli Ford.