Man sues Apple for potential hearing loss

[fergusonv]

Man sues Apple for potential hearing loss, this is the most assenine thing I have ever seen. If this goes anywhere could speakers that produce in excess of 100db be outlawed? I don't think so but it's food for thought.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/01/AR2006020102733_pf.html

[Clint DeBoer]

They should throw this out and make the guy pay for all court costs. In addition, this idiot is going for class-action which means the plaintiffs would get $5 each and Apple would lose like $300 million... meanwhile there would be no recall and nothing would change... (ie. makes no sense no matter how you slice it).

Some lawyer pushed this to make money. He should have to share in paying the court costs as well. Idiocy and ruining this country.

If the judge doesn't throw this out - then you know why so many say that this country's judicial system is going down the tubes quick.

[Naves74]

This is the same thing as that guy suing mcdonalds for making him fat. Or the lady suing them for getting burned with coffie. It seems that companies are supposted to be responsibble for people not having common sense. I mean did the guy think it would be a good idea to blast 100 db directly into his ear. Would you sit your hear on your floor standing speakers for hours on end and not think something detrimental is going to happen. My mother is no sound engineer but she always told me when I was young and jamming out to my headphones that if I listen to them to loud I would hurt my hearing. All you need is common sense to figure that one out. They should be shot.

And if we cannot have speakers over 100 db say good bye to live music.

[Hi Ho]

All I can say is.... Well, I'm speechless. That has to go up there with the top ten dumbest lawsuits of all time.

[markw]

Particilarly when they think they can make megabucks from a huge company* by convincing a gullible jury that we're too stupid for our own good and it's everyone else's responsibility to protect us from oursleves.

This sentence from the article cracks me up.

"Patterson does not know if the device has damaged his hearing, said his attorney, Steve W. Berman, of Seattle. But that's beside the point of the lawsuit, which takes issue with the potential the iPod has to cause irreparable hearing loss, Berman said."

So, I guess we can sue auto makers because we might drive their product reckelessly and hurt ourselves? ..or how about pencil makers because we might sharpen them and stick them in our eyes or ears? ...and the list goes on...

As I've always said, never confuse the law with justice.

*Of course, those that might "benefit" from the class action suit may only see a buck or two while the lawyer may make hundreds of millions.

[jonnythan]

Or the lady suing them for getting burned with coffie.
I get your point, and this lawsuit is frivolous, but if you look at the facts of the "hot coffee" case, that one was a very worthy lawsuit.

That particular McDonald's intentionally kept the coffee WAY above safe temperatures, at a temperature that causes 3rd degree burns within 5 seconds. They had been aware of the problem for at least 10 years. On a *number* of occasions, coffee had been spilled by employees at the drive-thru window, causing full-thickness burns on a number of customers, requiring them to get skin grafts.

The coffee McDonald's was serving, at a temperature of 180-190 degrees was absolutely unfit for consumption and presented a very real danger, as evidenced by the many people who had received skin grafts due to its temperature. McDonald's testified that they intentionally served the coffee "unfit for human consumption".

McDonald's refused to pay for her treatment, then refused to settle for $200,000.

If there was ever a worthy lawsuit, this was it.

[agarwalro]

I get your point, and this lawsuit is frivolous, but if you look at the facts of the "hot coffee" case, that one was a very worthy lawsuit.

That particular McDonald's intentionally kept the coffee WAY above safe temperatures, at a temperature that causes 3rd degree burns within 5 seconds. They had been aware of the problem for at least 10 years. On a *number* of occasions, coffee had been spilled by employees at the drive-thru window, causing full-thickness burns on a number of customers, requiring them to get skin grafts.

The coffee McDonald's was serving, at a temperature of 180-190 degrees was absolutely unfit for consumption and presented a very real danger, as evidenced by the many people who had received skin grafts due to its temperature. McDonald's testified that they intentionally served the coffee "unfit for human consumption".

McDonald's refused to pay for her treatment, then refused to settle for $200,000.

If there was ever a worthy lawsuit, this was it.I never bothered to check the details of the lawsuit. Thanks for bringing this to light. If you had not, I would have continued to blame this person for the litigious outlook in America today.

[twheeloc]

The Stella Awards

It's time once again to review the winners of the Annual "Stella
Awards." The Stella Awards are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck
who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in
NM). That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous,
ridiculous, successful lawsuits in the United States.

Here are this year's winners:

5th Place (tie): Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded
$80,000. by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a
toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the
store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the
misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

5th Place (tie): 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and
medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda
Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the
wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

5th Place (tie): Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving
a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not
able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was
malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door
connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut.
The family was on vacation, and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the
garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a
large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming
the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the
tune of $500,000.

4th Place: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500.
and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door
neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard.
The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have
been just a little provoked at the time by Mr.
Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting
it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3rd Place: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500. after she slipped on a soft drink and
broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms.
Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an
argument.

2nd Place: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the
owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the
bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This
occurred while Ms.Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the
ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded
$12,000. and dental expenses.

1st Place: This year's runaway winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot
Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, (from an OU football
game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70
mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back & make herself
a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and
overturned.

Mrs.Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual
that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000.
plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the
basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons
around.

[jonnythan]

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp
http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/cruise.asp

;)

[JaceTheAce]

Extremely frivilous! I think us Americans as a whole have lost a sense of personal responsibility. Isn't it common sense to not put your ear close to a 100 db siren? Same concept.

[mtrycrafts]

"Patterson does not know if the device has damaged his hearing, said his attorney, Steve W. Berman, of Seattle. But that's beside the point of the lawsuit, which takes issue with the potential the iPod has to cause irreparable hearing loss, Berman said."

So, I guess we can sue auto makers because we might drive their product reckelessly and hurt ourselves? ..or how about pencil makers because we might sharpen them and stick them in our eyes or ears? ...and the list goes on...
.


Yes, let's sue all the speaker makers as the potential is there:D

[mtrycrafts]

The Stella Awards

.


I just love these. Thanks:D Then they wonder why they, the sharks, have such a bad reputation. And the Jury, well, they much have checked their intellect at the door but that may not be their fault as the thinking jurors are dismissed in the selection process.

After a case I was a juror on the layer for the plaintiff told me he was going to dismiss me. I guess he didn't like my votes. The guy didn't get as much as they hoped to.

[BMXTRIX]

...but if you look at the facts of the "hot coffee" case, that one was a very worthy lawsuit.

If there was ever a worthy lawsuit, this was it.
Please - read the faqs on it...
http://www.vanosteen.com/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit.htm

All McDonalds shoot for that temperature range and it is recommended by the national coffee association as optimal temperature. Basically, it is recommended by you that coffee shouldn't taste good, it shold be safe? Obviously that's just silly. Hot coffee is supposed to be hot - and the temperature is supposed to be where McDonalds has it for best taste. Even asking for money... geez... let alone winning a lawsuit.

Pure stupidity in this world.

[jonnythan]

Please - read the faqs on it...
http://www.vanosteen.com/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit.htm

All McDonalds shoot for that temperature range and it is recommended by the national coffee association as optimal temperature. Basically, it is recommended by you that coffee shouldn't taste good, it shold be safe? Obviously that's just silly. Hot coffee is supposed to be hot - and the temperature is supposed to be where McDonalds has it for best taste. Even asking for money... geez... let alone winning a lawsuit.

Pure stupidity in this world.
"After dutifully slipping a thermometer into steaming cups and mugs all over the city, Danny Jarrett found that none came closer than about 20 degrees to the temperature at which McDonald's coffee is poured, about 180 degrees."

Hot coffee is supposed to be hot. It's not supposed to be 30 degrees above the temperature at which it's possible to sip without getting second degree burns on your skin, which was the case here.

"But McDonald's lawyers went on to dismiss several opportunities to settle out of court"

"Told during the trial of Mrs. Liebeck's seven days in the hospital and her skin grafts, and shown gruesome photographs, jurors began taking the matter more seriously."

"Even more eye-opening was the revelation that McDonald's had seen such injuries many times before."

"an articulate, 81-year-old former department store clerk who said under oath that she had never filed suit before. In fact, she said, she never would have filed this one if McDonald's hadn't dismissed her requests for compensation for pain and medical bills with an offer of $800"

"Christopher Appleton, a McDonald's quality assurance manager, who said "he was aware of this risk…and had no plans to turn down the heat,""

"Judge Scott ordered both sides to attend a mediation session. The mediator, a retired judge, recommended that McDonald's settle for $225,000, saying a jury would be likely to award that amount. The company didn't follow his recommendation."

"it takes less than three seconds to produce a third-degree burn at 190 degrees"

"He also testified that McDonald's had decided not to warn customers about the possibility of severe burns, even though most people wouldn't think it possible."

""The facts were so overwhelmingly against the company," says Ms. Farnham."

190 degree coffee is 22 degrees from *boiling*. It causes full-thickness burns requiring skin grafts in *three seconds*. It's *impossible to safely drink coffee that hot*.

Give me a break.

[Khellandros66]

I have an iPOD and man you would have to crank it in order to cause any hearing damage at all. I have a nice pair of Sony headphones that help mute outside noise. Half volume is loud enough to hear the music ona noisy bus...

~Bob

[bigpapa]

My mother is no sound engineer but she always told me when I was young and jamming out to my headphones that if I listen to them to loud I would hurt my hearing.


You should sue your mother for not taking them away and giving you a 'time out.':D :D :D

[mpompey]

I'm going to weigh in on this one. I think Ipods should have some kind of volume limiter. There have been times when I've been walking to work and I bump my unit and the volume shoots way up.Most of the time, I have my hand on it in case that happens. (First Generation Model).

As far as the woman burned by the coffee at McDonalds, there's more to that particular story than the media often portrays. That particular McDonald's was cited by inspectors for serving coffee about the recommended temperature, the coffee lid was not secure when it was handed to the customer. And that woman had 2nd degree burns over legs and genitalia.

Don't depend on the news if you want information.

[bigpapa]

I'm going to weigh in on this one. I think Ipods should have some kind of volume limiter. There have been times when I've been walking to work and I bump my unit and the volume shoots way up.Most of the time, I have my hand on it in case that happens. (First Generation Model).

As far as the woman burned by the coffee at McDonalds, there's more to that particular story than the media often portrays. That particular McDonald's was cited by inspectors for serving coffee about the recommended temperature, the coffee lid was not secure when it was handed to the customer. And that woman had 2nd degree burns over legs and genitalia.

Don't depend on the news if you want information.

Where did you find that information then???

I also heard (from the news) that the coffee cup was between her legs when the lid came off. Was the award worth the damage?

Also, as a coffee drinker, the demand is for coffee to be served hot, very hot. Likewise, some people want to listen to the music LOUD.

This is right up there with tobacco, too much fat in food, etc. We live in a free society, where we have have choice and can choose to risk our health.

[bigpapa]

That particular McDonald's was cited by inspectors for serving coffee about the recommended temperature, the coffee lid was not secure when it was handed to the customer.



Actually, according to the link (which is a basically an edited story from WSJ that is used as an ad for a class action law firm) she had opened the cup of coffee to put in condiments.

[Hi Ho]

I'm going to weigh in on this one. I think Ipods should have some kind of volume limiter. There have been times when I've been walking to work and I bump my unit and the volume shoots way up.Most of the time, I have my hand on it in case that happens. (First Generation Model).

There should not be a volume limiter on portable players. There are many reasons why including the fact that different headphones play louder than others. As per your situation, is there no hold function on the first gen Ipod? I put my ZenMicro Photo on hold and I can't bump the volume. It also has a function called smart volume which keeps all of the tracks at the same volume so there is no difference in volume between songs.

[jeffsg4mac]

There should not be a volume limiter on portable players. There are many reasons why including the fact that different headphones play louder than others. As per your situation, is there no hold function on the first gen Ipod? I put my ZenMicro Photo on hold and I can't bump the volume. It also has a function called smart volume which keeps all of the tracks at the same volume so there is no difference in volume between songs.

I have a first gen iPod, Yes it does have a hold and Yes it does have the setting to level the playback of all the songs. This lawsuit is absurd. Come to think of it, you could even use itunes to lower the level of all the songs so that they could not be played back at ear damaging levels. That is a good tool for parents to use, I think I will do it with my kids.

[audioqueso]

twheeloc,

The cases you listed are false cases. Not your fault, but those are the one's that run around the net and get changed. You can find some pretty interesting cases though at www.stellaawards.com. Good stuff.

[jeffsg4mac]

Let me correct my last post, I had a first gen ipod. It died yesterday, hard drive crashed. :( Seems it did not like being turned on when the temp was 10. Now I have a 2gig nano:D

[BMXTRIX]

Actual Stella Awards - and look at the site for actual info on that idiot Stella herself...

The 2005 True Stella Awards Winners
by Randy Cassingham
Issued 31 January 2006

#7: Bob Dougherty. A prankster smeared glue on the toilet seat at the Home Depot store in Louisville, Colo., causing Dougherty to stick to it when he sat down. "This is not Home Depot's fault," he proclaimed, yet the store graciously offered him $2,000 anyway. Dougherty complained the offer is "insulting" and filed suit demanding $3 million.

#6: Barbara Connors of Medfield, Mass. Connors was riding in a car driven by her 70-year-old(!) son-in-law when they crashed into the Connecticut River, and Connors sank with the car. Rescue divers arrived within minutes and got her out alive, but Connors suffered brain damage from her near-drowning. Sue the driver? Sure, we guess that's reasonable. But she also sued the brave rescue workers who risked their lives to save hers.

#5: Michelle Knepper of Vancouver, Wash. Knepper picked a doctor out of the phone book to do her liposuction, and went ahead with the procedure even though the doctor was only a dermatologist, not a plastic surgeon. After having complications, she complained she never would have chosen that doctor had she known he wasn't Board Certified in the procedure. (She relied on the phonebook listing over asking the doctor, or looking for a certificate on his wall?!) So she sued ...the phone company! She won $1.2 million plus $375,000 for her husband for "loss of spousal services and companionship."

#4: Rhonda Nichols. She says a wild bird "attacked" her outside a home improvement store in Fairview Heights, Ill., causing head injuries. That's right: outside the store. Yet Nichols still held the Lowe's store responsible for "allowing" wild birds to fly around free in the air. She never reported the incident to the store, but still sued for "at least" $100,000 in damages. In January 2006, the case was thrown out of court.

#3: Barnard Lorence of Stuart, Fla. Lorence managed to overdraw his own bank account. When the bank charged him a service fee for the overdraft, he filed suit over his "stress and pain" and loss of sleep over the fee. A few hundred thousand bucks, he says, will only amount to a "slap on the wrist", whereas the $2 million he's suing for is more like being "paddled". Kinky!

#2: Wanita "Renea" Young of Durango, Colo. Two neighborhood teens baked cookies for their neighbors as an anonymous gesture of good will, but Young got scared when she heard them on her front porch. They apologized, in writing, but Young sued them anyway for causing her distress, demanding $3,000. When she won(!!) $900, she crowed about it in the newspaper and on national TV. Now, she's shocked (shocked!) that everyone in town hates her for her spite, and is afraid she may have to move. But hey: she won.

And the winner of the 2005 True Stella Award: Christopher Roller of Burnsville, Minn. Roller is mystified by professional magicians, so he sued David Blaine and David Copperfield to demand they reveal their secrets to him -- or else pay him 10 percent of their lifelong earnings, which he figures amounts to $50 million for Copperfield and $2 million for Blaine. The basis for his suit: Roller claims that the magicians defy the laws of physics, and thus must be using "godly powers" -- and since Roller is god (according to him), they're "somehow" stealing that power from him.

[adwilk]

Thats like suing DeWalt for cutting your arm off with a chop saw.. it certainly has the potential... or suing bose for ruining all the music you grew up to love but now cant stand.

[Sheep]

Um Clint...?

Idiocy and ruining this country.

Fixy! :)

Anywho, My Sennheisser HD500's can't hurt my ears on full volume from my Zen Micro. Gotta love inefficient headphones! :D

SheepStar

[Sheep]

Thats like suing DeWalt for cutting your arm off with a chop saw.. it certainly has the potential... or suing bose for ruining all the music you grew up to love but now cant stand.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Thats hilarious.

Great post!

SheepStar

[Hipnotic4]

and to think i cant even get off going 5miles over the speed limit..:rolleyes:

[Audiacc]

Tinnitus is indeed a bad thing that might happen to just anyone. It's not about cranking the volume all the way up, it's just that if listening to music on headphones while in traffic you "have to" play it back louder to just hear the the damn song otherwise external noise is masking the sound.
You may even not know it is THAT loud.
I think manufacturers should provide with a fixed cap on volume, some countries actually do require it by law.
An interesting read on this here:
Pump down the volume (http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/pump-down-the-volume/2006/05/03/1146335804706.html)

[jcPanny]

Can we sue Apple for contributing to the dumbing down of audio through the proliferation of iPods and low resolution MP3s?

[jonnythan]

Can we sue Apple for contributing to the dumbing down of audio through the proliferation of iPods and low resolution MP3s?
Did you miss Napster and the 6 years of proliferating low resolution MP3s before Apple ever introduced an mp3 player into a virtually saturated market?

[WorldLeader]

I'm sure download speeds would suffer for those with dial-up if they made all their songs uncompressed AIFF or Apple Lossless. There is a reason why they sell reduced bit-rate songs.

[Nick250]

Can we sue Apple for contributing to the dumbing down of audio through the proliferation of iPods and low resolution MP3s?

Does than mean I can sue Hustler for carpal tunnel syndrome?

[3x10^8]

Can I sue Hustler for carpal tunnel syndrome?

hate to tell you this, but probably not. looks like you'll just have to switch hands.:D :eek:

[pzaur]

Wwwwaaaaaayyyyy too much information...but still funny.

-pat

[Audiacc]

Carpal tunnel syndrom aside this is not that funny....

I guess guys at Marlboro in say 40's did not think they are causing any damage to people. I KNOW Tinnitus is not Cancer nevertheless it is similar scenario in that you pay for a product but you are not aware of side effects.

All mp3 players should have a limit to max volume. iPods do not have such limit unless you install a patch. But this is too technical for 90% of users who get screwed, ie. their hearing gets screwed.
If other manufacturers can do that, why Apple can't do that?
I think they should recall all iPods and install this patch themselves.

It seems I am not the only one to think that current situation is unacceptable, here is a good read from itreviews on that:
http://www.itreviews.co.uk/editor/e69.htm