Apartment & insurance firm sue Apple over lethal iPad fire

A New Jersey apartment complex and its insurance company are together suing Apple to recover payouts for a Feb. 22, 2017 iPad fire, which killed a tenant of the building, Bradley Ireland.

"The subject tablet was unreasonably dangerous and unsafe for its intended purpose by reasons of defects in its design and/or its manufacture and/or a lack of adequate warnings," part of the court complaint reads. Apple is allegedly responsible for damages because it knew — or should have known — that the iPad's lithium battery was an "ultrahazardous mechanism capable of causing damage, even when reasonably used."

The plaintiffs, Union Management and its subrogating insurance company, Greater New York Mutual Insurance Company, filed the case June 20 through the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

The pair are pursuing a jury trial, and compensation in the form of "damages for all monies paid by Greater New York Mutual Insurance to Union Management," including the insurance deductible, legal fees, and related interest.

In February this year Ireland's son and daughter launched their own civil suit against Apple, likewise blaming the iPad's battery. A difference in that case is that in addition to charging liability, Ireland's family also claimed that he "experienced significant pain and suffering" before his burns killed him.

Fires in lithium-powered mobile devices are not a new phenomena, but at the same time it's relatively rare for an Apple device to ship with a faulty battery. Lawsuits blaming Apple for fires do occasionally surface, but this may be inevitable given the vast number of products Apple ships.

New York Mutual versus Apple by Mike Wuerthele on Scribd

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33 Comments

bigtds 167 comments · 10 Years

About 5 years ago

This is SB. The insurance company is happy to take your money on a regular basis but when it comes time to pay out in a few instances, they look for someone to recoup their losses. I hope Apple fights this. At some point you have to stop this nonsense.

tzterri 113 comments · 12 Years

I drive a hybrid. If my car explodes in an accident do I sue the gas companies or the maker of the giant lithium battery in it? Really wondering how they could figure out it was the iPad that caused the fire? Bet it was plugged into a 3rd party charger or was somehow damaged.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

tzterri said:

I drive a hybrid. If my car explodes in an accident do I sue the gas companies or the maker of the giant lithium battery in it? Really wondering how they could figure out it was the iPad that caused the fire? Bet it was plugged into a 3rd party charger or was somehow damaged.

1) If there's a fault with the product you certain should. It's not even speculative to say that companies run the numbers to see if it's in their favor financially to recall a product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA2EBWFCULg

2) While it's certainly possible that a battery could catch fire because it's faulty I do agree that it's statically more likely that there was a 3rd-party PSU in the mix.

hentaiboy 1252 comments · 14 Years

tzterri said:

Bet it was plugged into a 3rd party charger

Ah yes that tired excuse. Perhaps the owner was also holding it wrong.

hentaiboy said:

tzterri said:

Bet it was plugged into a 3rd party charger

Ah yes that tired excuse. Perhaps the owner was also holding it wrong.

How is it a "tired excuse" when there are countless knockoffs without proper shielding on the market, others that are cheap fire hazards, countless articles about spotting fakes, Apple having issued recalls on PSUs in the past, and even a support page from Apple for spotting fakes? Are all those deaths "fake news"?