Articles Posted in Product Liability

A few days ago, I posted on the subject of a Massachusetts dangerous products lawsuit involving an inflatable swimming pool slide and Toys R Us, where almost $21 million was awarded in 2006 by a Massachusetts jury to the family of a woman killed in an accident due to this defective product.

Very recently, Toys R Us appeared before the Massachusetts Supreme Court to argue that the jury’s award be overturned. Why? Because of a legal technicality, of course.

Attorneys for Ms. Aleo’s husband argued that pool slides have been governed by a U.S. Product Safety Commission standard since 1976, which they contend, applies to all types of pool slides, regardless of what material they consist of. Toys R Us contends that the standard was meant to apply to rigid (permanently installed, fixed) slides only, and not the inflatable, flexible slides that have increased in popularity in recent years. Mr. Aleo’s aunt and uncle bought the slide from Toys R Us through Amazon.com. It should come as little surprise to anyone that Toys R Us had imported the pool slides from China, where they were originally manufactured. Aleo’s attorneys asserted that the inflatable slide was never tested for safety, and that the product carried no required certification that it had been tested for safety.

Here’s a real interesting story about defective products, and the legal liability that can attach to them. (This type of liability is known as Product Liability.) The story is also timely, since it’s summer now. Read on, and you’ll find out why.

Ever visit a friend who has a pool in their back yard, on a hot summer day? Fun comes to most people’s minds with such a scene. As a Massachusetts swimming pool injury lawyer, caution comes to mine. Swimming pools, especially the backyard/privately-owned ones, are especially dangerous places. They often have a “do-whatever-you-want, it’s our house” type of atmosphere to them, and this can invariably invite serious injuries. And worse, those injuries tend to be of the catastrophic variety, often involving either broken necks, broken backs, brain injuries and death. I’ve blogged previously about Massachusetts swimming pool injuries, and of what measure pool owners need to take to minimize the risk of a swimming pool injury on their property.

This case is more about unsafe and dangerous products. Exhibit “A” on this point: One hot summer day back in July 2006, a young woman by the name of Robin Aleo, from Colorado, was, along with her husband Michael, visiting her husband’s aunt and uncle in Andover, Massachusetts. Mr. Aleo’s aunt and uncle had a backyard in-ground swimming pool. She thought she was looking at the perfect day of fun at the family pool. She slid head-first down a 6-foot inflatable pool slide that had been purchase by her husband’s aunt and uncle through Toys R Us. The slide’s instruction manual and a small warning label near the ladder footholds stated that the slide’s weight limit was 200 pounds. Aleo, reportedly weighing 148 pounds, figured that was no problem. Down she went, head first. As she did so, the slide partially collapsed near the bottom, and Aleo slammed her head onto the concrete pool deck. She suffered massive injuries to her neck and head, causing her death the next day. She was 29 years old. Her husband and 15-month-old daughter witnessed the entire shocking event.

Here’s a typical scenario in life, which can suddenly go off into a direction you never anticipated.

You go the furniture store, planning to buy some pieces for your new home or apartment. Wow – you see beanbag chairs, which are “just the ticket” for the informal recreation room for your children. You make your purchase, have the chairs delivered, and assume that you can sit back and enjoy things.

Only there’s a real threat tucked inside those beanbag chairs — one that never crossed your mind.

Made popcorn lately with the Avon Popcorn Maker? Chances are it was anything but a Jolly Time.

Recently, the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled Avon Microwave Popcorn Makers, due to burn and fire hazards and the possibility of injuries from using them. The CPSC has instructed consumers who use this product to cease doing so at once. And remember, it is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product. As of May 16, 2013, it was found that when cooked too long, the popcorn can overheat in the Avon popcorn maker and ignite, causing a fire and posing a possible burn injury to consumers.

Apparently Avon Products has received approximately 20 reports of the popcorn makers overheating. Two episodes resulted in fires, damaging the microwave ovens.

My wife and I were watching an episode of the hit show Shark Tank on TV a few weeks ago, when we were shocked to see an entrepreneur’s latest offering: pancakes ladled with caffeine, so you could have your sugar and caffeine in one easy fix, no coffee required.

As a Boston product liability lawyer, I just have to ask: When will marketers stop pushing crazy “energy” food products to the American public? The proof is already in: “Energy products”, and “energy drinks” specifically, are very dangerous, and have even led to Massachusetts wrongful death lawsuits. Massachusetts Representative Edward Markey said recently, “It’s time for energy drink makers to stop masking their ingredients, stop marketing to kids, and start being more transparent with their products.”

I wholeheartedly agree. Consider these facts:

Here’s even more evidence that justice can still be achieved in this day and age, when one small family takes on a huge corporation, whose negligence caused them devastating harm.

This week, the family of a little girl in Plymouth, Massachusetts who was devastatingly injured in 2003 due to taking Children’s Motrin, was awarded $63 Million by a Massachusetts jury. The jury found that Johnson & Johnson – a giant in the healthcare industry – was liable, because it had failed to warn the public adequately about the potential side effects of Children’s Motrin – of the USA’s most common household medications. The girl’s family commented that the verdict, given by a jury in Plymouth, was “a historic day for consumer safety.” As a Boston, Massachusetts injury attorney, to say that I could not agree more, is an understatement.

The plaintiff here is Samantha Reckis, who was just seven years old in 2003 when she was given Children’s Motrin after she showed signs of having a fever. Unfortunately, as she continued to take the drug, she developed far worse symptoms. Her family actually didn’t think that she would survive. The young child was suffering from a condition known as Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. This is an extremely painful – and rare – skin condition that is caused by an adverse reaction to medication, notably Ibuprofen. Ibuprofen, of course, is the popular painkiller that is sold under the mass-market brand “Motrin.” Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (also called “TEN”) is the most severe form of a skin disorder called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. To understand how devastating the skin injuries that this child suffered were, is challenging. The most accurate way to think of it is to imagine having worst form of sunburn –magnified hundreds of times in severity. Not only did she require months of hospitalization and multiple surgeries, but incredibly and tragically, she lost most of her skin. She also suffered permanent liver and lung damage. Today, she is 16 years old and legally blind. Her life will never be the same.

Energy drinks seem to be on the shelves everywhere in the past few years. I’ve always looked at these products with great skepticism – not about their ability to turn the average person into someone who has just stuck his finger into an electrical outlet – but skeptical as to their safety. I always felt they were medically dangerous – and recent news events appear to support that idea.

Not surprisingly, a lot of people use these drinks. It’s not hard to imagine this common scenario: You’ve been up all night working on an important project, and got just an hour or two of sleep. And it gets worse – you need to get up early to go to work. You feel terrible. You have the entire day ahead of you. And breakfast with a huge cup of coffee just won’t do it for you. You’re exhausted. The “solution”? You down an energy drink, trusting and hoping that its large jolt of caffeine will stimulate you enough to get you through the day. It doesn’t occur to you that it might be medically unsafe. Unfortunately, what you don’t know can literally kill you. That’s right. Some so-called energy drinks –such as Monster Energy – can allegedly be fatal if you drink them.

In fact, one family is now suing Monster Energy Products, after their 14-year-old daughter died soon after consuming Monster Energy caffeinated drinks. After the death, the parents of 14-year-old Anais Fournier filed their lawsuit. They are saying that Monster Energy’s caffeinated drinks killed their daughter. Apparently, Miss Fournier drank two 24-oz. Monster Energy drinks within 24 hours. Her death, according to her autopsy, was attributed to cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity. This is upsetting news and as a Massachusetts unsafe products lawyer, I’m always saddened to hear about manufacturers who create products that allegedly harm people.

Four days ago, I reported on what was news to very few people at that point in time: That a Massachusetts pharmaceutical compounding facility, the New England Compounding Center, had unknowingly distributed thousands of vials of a fungally-infected steroid commonly used to treat back and spine injuries.

Since then, the outbreak has continued to spread. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) now reports that75 medical facilities in 23 states received the contaminated steroid injections from NECC. The NECC manufactures a variety of specialty pharmaceutical products that it distributes to medical facilities around the country. Tennessee has seen the most deaths related to this defective product (six so far,) as well as the most infections (39.) In addition to the most recent death in Florida (in Marion County, where six non-fatal infections have also been reported,) deaths have been reported in Maryland, Michigan and Virginia. Confirmed cases of the disease in have occurred in Indiana, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Ohio. Other states that received the contaminated drug are California, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

Meningitis is a horrific, often fatal disease that causes swelling of the protective membranes of the spinal cord and the brain. It is typically caused by an infection, frequently by bacteria or a virus, but it can also be caused by less common pathogens such as fungi. Fungal meningitis is very rare and, unlike viral and bacterial meningitis, it is not contagious. Click here to learn more about it.

Imagine this: You get out of a bed one day, with a sore back. You’re in a lot of pain, so you go to see your doctor to assess the problem and help you deal with your pain. He gives you some exercises to perform, and recommends Ibuprofen. And, oh yes, he suggests that he give you a steroid injection in your back to counteract your back pain. Sounds good to you, so you agree.

The next thing you know, you have contracted meningitis, an extremely serious and perhaps fatal inflammation of the lining of the spinal cord and brain.

Unfortunately, the above scenario is no nightmare, but a reality. In the past several days, a multi-state outbreak of fungal meningitis has been traced to a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility located here in our backyard, in Framingham, Massachusetts: The New England Compounding Center. The company is a compounding pharmacy, which means it custom-mixes medications for medical and commercial distribution. As of this posting, this bacterial meningitis outbreak spans nine states and has resulted in the deaths of at least seven people. States that have reported cases include Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. As the outbreak has spread over the past few days, the New England Compounding Center has recalled not only the particular steroid linked to this outbreak, but all of its current products. Simultaneously, health officials have been working overtime to notify anyone who may have been injected with the drug.

Here’s a scenario that could easily happen to you. You and your significant other go out to dinner some evening, all set for a romantic rendezvous. Everything’s great. Dinner is excellent. The company is marvelous. And the wine is award-winning.

Except that when you get back home — or maybe even on your way home — you start to fell terribly ill or perhaps begin to vomit uncontrollably. This actually happened to my poor wife many years ago, after consuming some tainted melon at a restaurant. The melon had gone bad, causing my wife to get sick in public, on a street in Brookline at 11 o’clock in the evening. Afterward, she was unable to go to work for two days.

Has this ever happened to you?