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Family Sues Amazon After Counterfeit Hoverboard Catches Fire, Destroys Home (wtsp.com)
Three weeks after unboxing a hoverboard, it burst into flames. But is Amazon partly to blame?
tripleevenfall quotes The Tennessean:
A Nashville family whose $1 million home was destroyed earlier this year in a fire caused by a hoverboard toy is suing Amazon saying the retail giant knowingly sold a dangerous product...
The lawsuit says the seller of the hoverboard listed online, "W-Deals," is a sham organization that is registered to an apartment in New York City that has not responded to requests from lawyers in the case. It alleges the family was sold a counterfeit product from China instead of a brand with a Samsung lithium ion battery they believed they were buying from Amazon . It says Tennessee product liability law holds a seller responsible if the manufacturer cannot be found.
They likely have home insurance and will be reimbursed. If anyone has a right to sue Amazon it will be the insurance company, to reclaim the money they paid out to the homeowners.
It is possible their insurance did not cover the total loss as well as any damages bryond monetary.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Insurance companies fight you tooth and nail, often for years. Especially on a big payout like a burnt down house. Every year they delay inflation bites into the payout and you get more desperate to take whatever they'll give.
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Amazon lists it on their storefront. Amazon handles the financial transaction. Amazon profits off of each sale. Amazon often ships the thing out to you even if it's a third party. Amazon is supposed to vet the 3rd parties they work with. Amazon is on the hook.
Nope, law almost universally agrees, the person you give the money to in order to get the item is the seller. Note, you don't pay eBay for your wins (not including any 3rd party payment services owned by eBay). eBay connects you with a seller, not doesn't directly take payment and dispatch the item, as Amazon (and you supermarket) does.
Amazon should not allow 3rd party sellers, plain and simple
Not without some vetting, or for limited products (like self-published books).
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What makes you think they didn't have home owner's insurance? What makes you think that the policy - like so many that most people have - would truly make them whole, financially? Most policies don't. And none of them will replace family heirlooms, in terms of their sentimental value, etc.
That said, Amazon didn't make this batter, and makes the third party vendor responsible for the assertions they make about product suitability and safety. Now, if Amazon KNEW that the vendor was lying, and Amazon didn't give them the heave as they do to thousands of vendors, regularly, that's another matter. But Amazon's not responsible for a third party misrepresenting things, just like they're not responsible for a death when a criminal uses a steak knife from Amazon to kill somebody.
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When you win a lawsuit of this nature the first people to get paid back is the insurance company. My sister recently won a lawsuit against the scumbag incompetent doctor that was treating her. So she got around 800k, first thing required was 600k went to pay back what medical insurance had paid out.
They are not hoverboards they do not hover what so ever that ride on wheels firmly planted on the ground. Call them motorized skateboards, that more closer to what they actually are.
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