Articles Posted in Product Liability

The Center for Disease Control (CDC), Maine public health and regulatory officials, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have expanded a hardboiled egg recall to include eggs sold in Maine. The hardboiled eggs were primarily sold to grocery stores and restaurants for use in prepared foods; however, some products were sold directly to consumers. Public health officials, following the CDC warning, issued the recall after discovering the strain of listeria during a routine inspection of a Georgia food manufacturing plant. An investigation into the bacteria revealed that the strain is identical to one found to be responsible for several foodborne related hospitalizations and deaths. The CDC advises consumers who have purchased boiled egg products to return them to the retailer or throw them away. Many of these products are marked with sell-by dates of “March 2, 2020”. Although the CDC issued a recall, some retailers and foodservice operations may fail to remove all of the affected products appropriately.

Food manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and restaurants must ensure that their food products are safe for consumption. This includes abiding by all food safety regulations, conducting periodic inspections, properly sanitizing, packing, and transporting food items. In some instances, food preparers at grocery stores and restaurants may not realize that they are using contaminated food products. These parties must ensure that they are up-to-date on all warnings and recalls that the CDC issues. Further, companies must train their employees on how to handle food items safely and advise sick employees to remain home.

The failure to do this can result in serious injuries to consumers. Bacteria such as, salmonella, E.Coli, norovirus, and listeria monocytogenes can result in various foodborne illnesses. The symptoms of foodborne illness often begin with an upset stomach and evolve into severe stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pains, and fever. These symptoms can be deadly to vulnerable individuals such as newborns, pregnant women, and older adults. In some cases, individuals suffer longterm effects of food poisoning such as brain damage, arthritis, and organ failure.

Individuals who suffer injuries because of contaminated food may hold the restaurant or food manufacturer liable for the damages that they suffered. Food-borne illnesses can have severe and long-lasting consequences for an individual, especially for someone who is young or otherwise immunocompromised. Maine product liability lawsuits based on food-borne diseases can be challenging to establish and require a thorough understanding of the state’s product liability laws.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that over 125,000 people are hospitalized and 3,000 people die each year because of exposure to contaminated food. Many of these deaths and injuries are preventable if food manufacturers follow appropriate and safe food processing standards. However, despite strict regulations, many companies continue to value quick processing times over consumer safety.

A food-borne illness is any illness that results because of exposure to food contaminated with unsafe chemicals, bacteria, or other pathogens. Similarly, injuries can occur if food products contain foreign, dangerous substances, such as glass, metal, and plastic. For example, in a recent state appellate decision, a woman filed a lawsuit against a popular yogurt manufacturer after she consumed metal fragments in the yogurt.

Recently, a man filed a Maine personal injury lawsuit against Ford Motor Company claiming that the defective design of a lawnmower caused a blade to fly off a mower and strike his leg. According to a local news report, the man was bicycling with his son when a pickup truck towing a trailer with a mower passed them. The blade on the mower came loose, struck the man, and severed his leg. The impact was so severe that the man may have bled to death. However, in a fortuitous turn of events, a nurse happened to witness the incident. The nurse stopped and used a beach towel as a tourniquet until further emergency help arrived. Although the man survived, he required amputation above the knee.

Following the accident, the victim filed a lawsuit against the mower’s manufacturer, the Ford Motor Company. The complaint alleged that the mower was defectively designed because there was no backup mechanism to prevent this type of accident. The mower’s design allowed the blade to drop when transported in an upright position. The plaintiff argued that the manufacturer should have designed a backup mechanism to ensure that the blade did not drop during transportation. Further, the plaintiff pointed out that the factory-installed safety device failed, and the manufacturer did not provide any warning to users that this type of accident could occur.

There are generally four types of product liability lawsuits in Maine; including:

There may be defective products in your home and you might not even know about it.

We’re talking about defective products that can cause serious injuries in Bangor and elsewhere. Remember the recall that was made earlier this month regarding the inflatable pool slides that were sold by both Walmart and Toys ‘R’ Us?sThe recall of those products didn’t even come until after someone died and several others were injured.

Sometimes that’s just how it works, unfortunately. It’s important for consumers to stay in the loop with the latest recalls to help to make sure that everyone in their home is safe from dangerous products.Unfortunately, even when consumers know about recalls not many return the product or take it in to have the necessary repairs done. As a matter of fact, only about 10 percent of recalled products ever leave a consumer’s home.

Our Bangor product liability attorneys understand that many times it’s up to the consumer to stay educated about dangerous products. Take the recall of the furnaces back in February. Back then, there were about 200,000 furnaces that were recalled, with the same ones being recalled eight years prior. Still, more than 90 percent of the close to 400 accident reports came after the initial recall. This is serious business and consumers need to take these recalls seriously.

“We know that the majority of products that are recalled remain in consumers’ homes,” says Kids in Danger’s Nancy Cowles.

Why don’t consumers ditch the dangerous products?sExperts say there’s a number of reasons. One of the top ones is that they just don’t know. Others say that consumers feel they’re exempt from the risks and that nothing’s going to happen to them. Some say that it’s because since there’s so many recalls a year, consumers just overlook them as false or insignificant alerts. Whatever the case may be, the truth of the matter is that far too many people are being injured and killed by dangerous products long after warnings have been made public.

Cowles says that parents need to continuously check the products in their home and check the Consumer Product Safety Commission‘s recall list often. If you notice that something in your home has been recalled, be sure to remove it immediately. The risks aren’t worth it.

We aren’t able to protect our children from everything, but we are able to make the necessary move to protect them from the products that have already been deemed dangerous.

TIME recently released the most dangerous products that you may have in your home. These products include the Bumbo Baby Seats, the Lasko Box Fans, the Maytag Dishwashers, the Maclaren Strollers (before-2010), the Magnetix Building Sets, all Shades and Blinds from Roman, portable fuel from Gel Fuel, Toy Dart Guns from Family Dollar Store, various Drop-Side Cribs and LG Dehumidifiers.

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