Amazon and the University of Pennsylvania have argued in court papers that they cannot be held liable for a student's death by suicide using chemicals she allegedly bought through the online retailing giant because the death was not reasonably foreseeable.

Both parties, which are defendants in Singh v. Amazon.com, filed preliminary objections with the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on Sept. 10, contending the claims against them are not actionable under Pennsylvania law.

The mother of Arya Singh, who used soluble cyanide salts to kill herself in February 2013, sued Amazon, the university and a Thai website that allegedly sold the cyanide through Amazon. Singh's mother, Sujata Singh, further alleged her daughter, who was a nursing student at the time, killed herself two years after she had been sexually assaulted on campus.