AttributeError: 'ApplyJointEffortRequest' object has no attribute '_request_class'

Hello,
I just started with ROS and Gazebo and was trying to control the robot in the simulation via python.
However, I appear to be unable to create an object of type ApplyJointEffortRequest, which is neccessary for the /gazebo/apply_joint_effort service call.
I’ve tired all kinds of modifications to my code, but I don’t understand how to resolve this issue. Other people online who had the _request_class attribute problem simply had to rename their class (because it was the same name as the service class) but this isn’t the case with my code. I basically followed this Construct YouTube Video ([ROS Q&A] 056]([ROS Q&A] 056 - How to use GetModelState service from Gazebo in python - YouTube)) and it worked perfectly fine, but when I added my own function (here simply called party) to control the robot instead of just reading its values, I encountered the problem.

Here’s a snippet in case anyone can help me:

from gazebo_msgs.srv import GetModelState, ApplyJointEffortRequest
from rospy import rostime as rt
import rospy


class BodyPart:
    def __init__(self, model_name, body_name):
        self._model_name = model_name
        self._body_name = body_name

    @property
    def model_name(self):
        return self._model_name

    @property
    def body_name(self):
        return self._body_name


class GazeboModStates:
    _body_parts = {
        0: BodyPart("cobotta", "base_link"),
        1: BodyPart("cobotta", "J1"),
        2: BodyPart("cobotta", "J2"),
        3: BodyPart("cobotta", "J3"),
        4: BodyPart("cobotta", "J4"),
        5: BodyPart("cobotta", "J5"),
        6: BodyPart("cobotta", "J6"),
    }

    def get_info(self):
        try:
            model_state = rospy.ServiceProxy("/gazebo/get_model_state", GetModelState)
            for body in self._body_parts.values():
                msg = model_state(body.model_name, body.body_name)
                print("")
                # print("Status.success = ", msg.success)
                print(str(body.model_name) + "-" + str(body.body_name))
                pos = msg.pose.position
                print("Position: " + str(pos.x) + " | " + str(pos.y) + " | " + str(pos.z))
                rot = msg.pose.orientation
                print("Rotation: " + str(rot.x) + " | " + str(rot.y) + " | " + str(rot.z) + " | " + str(rot.w))
        except rospy.ServiceException as e:
            rospy.loginfo("Get Model State service call failed:  {0}".format(e))

    @staticmethod
    def party():
        try:
            kwargs = {"joint_name": "joint_1",
                      "effort": 10,
                      "start_time": rt.Time(secs=0, nsecs=0),
                      "duration": rt.Duration(secs=10, nsecs=0)}

            # this causes the AttributeError
            ajer = ApplyJointEffortRequest(**kwargs)

            rospy.ServiceProxy("/gazebo/apply_joint_effort", ajer)
        except rospy.ServiceException as e:
            rospy.loginfo("Get Model State service call failed:  {0}".format(e))


def menu_loop():
    cobot = GazeboModStates()
    while True:
        # noinspection PyUnresolvedReferences
        cmd = str(raw_input("\nEnter command. q to quit, i for joint info, p for party\n"))
        if cmd == "q":
            print("\nQuitting...")
            return
        elif cmd == "i":
            cobot.get_info()
        elif cmd == "p":
            cobot.party()