Plaintiff Sues Walmart Over Defective, “Exploding” Thermos

A Georgia plaintiff has filed a product liability lawsuit against Walmart after claiming that a store-brand thermos she purchased “exploded, resulting in serious and permanent injuries” to her face, eyes, and body after she filled the container with hot soup. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff purchased the thermos sometime in the latter half of 2017, The Ozark Trail thermos was purchased from a Walmart in Douglasville, Georgia. The plaintiff maintains that the 36-ounce vacuum-insulated, stainless-steel bottle was advertised as being designed for both hot and cold liquids.

On March 1, 2018, the plaintiff made soup for lunch for herself and her husband and deposited the hot soup into the thermos. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff’s husband attempted to open the thermos to eat, but could not get the thermos open. The husband asked his wife to “try to turn the handle on top of the thermos while he held the base end,” the suit contends. As she did so, the top of the thermos “literally exploded,” casting hot soup and other materials into her face. The plaintiff suffered burns and scarring and lost the use of her left eye as a result of the explosion. She also sustained significant damage to her right eye.

The plaintiffs maintain that the thermos was “defectively designed and unreasonably dangerous” and that it had “no adequate pressure relief mechanism to alleviate a foreseeable event such as occurred in this case.” In other words, the plaintiff believes that the design of the thermos rendered it unsuitable to store hot liquids despite being advertised as such. They, therefore, contend that both the manufacturer of the thermos and Walmart are both liable for the plaintiff’s injuries.

Walmart and product liability lawsuits 

Walmart has a duty of care to vet its manufacturers and ensure that its products are safe. Large retailers like Walmart are responsible for placing these products into the stream of commerce. They can, therefore, be held liable whenever these products fail and cause an injury to the purchaser. In this case, it was a defective thermos that was responsible for the plaintiff’s injuries.

Elements of negligence 

Product liability lawsuits can be filed under one of three theories of liability. The plaintiff can allege that the product is defective by design (it has an intrinsic defect that renders it dangerous to the user), the product has a manufacturing defect that caused it to become dangerous, or that the company failed to warn consumers about a potential danger. In this case, the plaintiffs are alleging that Walmart and the manufacturer of the thermos failed to warn the plaintiff that the product was not suitable for hot liquids. Hence, Walmart and the manufacturer were negligent for advertising the thermos as suitable for hot liquids.

Talk to a Florida Product Liability Lawyer Today 

Halpern, Santos & Pinkert represent the interests of Florida residents who have been injured by defective products sold by Walmart, Amazon, Target, and other major retailers. Call our Florida personal injury lawyers today to schedule a consultation, and we can begin investigating your injuries right away.

Source:

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