Apple Sued By State Farm Over Alleged iPhone Fire (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader quotes CNET: Insurer State Farm and one of its customers, Wisconsin resident Xai Thao, allege that one of Apple's older iPhones had a defective battery that led to a fire last year. A lawsuit filed on Thursday by both State Farm and Thao claims that her iPhone 4S "failed" and "started a fire at Thao's home." The lawsuit further claims that "preliminary investigations show evidence of a significant and localized heating event in the battery area of the iPhone." It also declares that there were "remnants of internal shorting, indicating that an internal failure of the iPhone's battery caused the fire"... The State Farm lawsuit says that Thao's iPhone was "in a defective and unreasonably dangerous condition" when she bought it in 2014. The suit is claiming in excess of $75,000 in damages.

Comments

Re:Discontinued in Sep 2013.

[dgatwood]

She bought the phone at least 4 months after it was discontinued (Sept 2013 per Wiki).

No, the iPhone 4s was discontinued in September of 2014 in the United States, and was still sold in some countries as late as 2016.

I happened to me as well.

[LeftCoastThinker]

I have owned an iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 6, and 6 plus all bought by me brand new at the AT&T store or Apple store. All of them are going strong still (the 3GS and 4/4S are being used as iPods) with the exception of my 5. A few months back, I noticed that the battery in my 5 had swollen to the point that the front screen had bowed out and popped off of the bezzel in places. The phone was still on at that point. I turned it off and took it out back and put it inside my old BBQ, since it could explode or catch fire inside of a sheet metal enclosure like that without any risk of further fire or damage. I called Apple and they told me to bring it in and get the battery replaced for $100... I haven't done it yet because there is no way I am going to put that thing in my car or pick it up with anything but welding gloves. I am sure that the battery is just about ready to pop. So now I have an iPhone 5 in my old BBQ. I was half hoping it would explode so I could just throw it away (I don't want to start a fire in the trash or trash truck, so I can't just toss it like it is now). If I lived out in the sticks, I would just put a bullet through it, but I can't do that in a residential neighborhood. But yeah, that iPhone 5 was pristine, not a scratch on it and I was the original owner. The battery failed on it's own, after less use than my 3GS or my 4/4S.