Forbes: “Should swords carry warning labels? . . . Here’s a case report describing a recent Personal injury action in which the defendants failed to warn the plaintiff that playing with a sharp sword displayed in its store would result in the plaintiff slicing his hand when he attempted to place it back in its sheath.”
More proof there are too many lawyers in the U.S. A California law firm filed a class action lawsuit (Baltazar vs. Apple) against Apple claiming that Apple has done a whole lot of bad things with respect to its iPad. Here are some choice portions of the complaint:
“according to the www.apple.com website, ‘[r]eading on iPad is just like reading a book.’ However, contrary to this promise, using the iPad is not ‘just like reading a book’ at all since books do not close when the reader is enjoying them in the sunlight or in other normal environmental environments. This promise, like other portions of APPLE’s marketing material for the iPad, is false.”
“Specifically, the iPad does not live up to the reasonable consumer’s expectations created by APPLE insofar as the iPad overheats so quickly under common weather conditions that it does not function for prolonged use either outdoors, or in many other warm conditions, for a variety of common uses such as, but not necessarily limited to, an e-reader, email tool, web browser and/or game/entertainment unit.”
“nowhere in any of APPLE’s advertising materials which market the iPad to consumers does APPLE mention that the iPad is virtually unusable when sitting in particular environmental conditions (e.g., in direct sunlight in connection with virtually any ambient air temperature) since it turns off, sometimes after just a few minutes of use.”
“Class Members were misled into purchasing the iPad, unjustly enriching Defendant at the expense of these consumers.”
Is it possible that any purchaser of an iPad believed the iPad was just like a book? The complaint alleges the following causes of action:
Ralph Dupps’ pet turkeys bugged his neighbors, Robert and Jennifer Klippel. The Klippels birdnapped the turkeys and set them free in a wildlife preserve. Dupps filed a police complaint and had the Klippels arrested for petit larceny. The Klippels spent about ten hours in jail. Naturally, being good American citizens who have been born and raised in our litigious society, the Klippels did what comes naturally and sued Dupps for a whole bunch of stuff. A court just awarded the Klippels $4.25 million! More proof that we live in a wonderful country where litigation is always the answer to every problem. Good luck collecting the judgment.
Moral of the story: A bird stolen from the hand is worth $4.5 million – to the thief.
Phoenix Business Journal: “Four housing industry associations are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for removing an opt-out provision in renovation regulations for houses built before 1978, when lead paint was banned.”
“The lead-safe renovation rule adds an average of $2,400 to the cost of renovations in older homes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.”
Wall St. Journal: “The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a $550 million settlement with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that will resolve its lawsuit against the firm alleging that it misled investors in a subprime mortgage product, the agency announced Thursday [July 15, 2010].”