Legal issues: liability with manufacturers in the hobby space

mikeporterinmd

Still Learning
Because soda can not get cold enough to cause tissue damage, no I wouldn't. Now if they served me super chilled antifreeze? Then we have a different lawsuit.

Common sense is not setting any hot liquid cups between your knees and prying open the lid.

You couldn't put super cold ice in the soda "because people like their sodas very cold?" Ice can be made as cold as you want.

"between your knees and prying open the lid" - Yes, well, obviously that wasn't the best move. If I were judging the case, I would weigh the action against the evidence that the corporation well knew they were serving a dangerous product and limit the pain and suffering damages. This did in fact happen. The judge changed the award from 2m+ to 600k or so, and then further negotiations occurred with a final sealed settlement.

... anyhow. Obviously I am not making the concept of corporate responsibility to society as well as personal responsibility clear. People have a responsibility to not do stupid things. When they do, they get hurt. Ultimately,
their medical and other costs are borne by society. Corporations should also exhibit common sense within context. When corporations do not exhibit common sense, they should lose money in court. This will hopefully lead them to make changes that limit the damages to society and danger to individuals.

My Keurig makes 150 degree coffee, by the way, and it is too hot to drink when it comes out.
 

Epitaph

Ebil Filleh Pega-Bat ^.^
Mentor
All I can say is if I ever invent or produce something that can be remotely dangerous, I will never release it in the US. The problem isn't that there are too many numbskull end users there, because that's the case world wide, but they have too many suing rights for the most stupid reasons in the US that 99% of the time are brought upon themselves!!
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
All I can say is if I ever invent or produce something that can be remotely dangerous, I will never release it in the US. The problem isn't that there are too many numbskull end users there, because that's the case world wide, but they have too many suing rights for the most stupid reasons in the US that 99% of the time are brought upon themselves!!

Yeah - as a the son of an entrepreneur who went through some troubles, I can definitely support that statement.
 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
While I would say we all need to be held accountable for what we do and a manufacturer should not be excluded, especially if there is real culpability.

That said, how does a government enforce it's laws over those outside its jurisdiction? It would seem to me that any entity outside jurisdiction would choose to comply if maintaining trade with that country was desireable or choose not to comply if the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. I am curious about the actual enforceability of this.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
That is mostly enforced through the international trade agreements - those things negotiated in secret between the corporate / government representatives of countries. They enable lawsuits between parties in separate countries, and usually favor the more 'draconian' legal restrictions or corporate interests. And in addition to the damage and liability concerns, there are a lot of intellectual property ramifications to our hobby in the latest TPP as well. All heavily influenced to support the interests of major US corporations at the expense of other nations' laws, individual rights, existing trade agreements & treaties, etc.

Lots of info on that over here: https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp

*sigh*

*reaches for anti-acid tablets*