Ummm......what else would you expect?

Steve Ebels_3

<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-19/lennox-must-face-class-suit-over-gas-fireplaces-judge-rules.html">http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-19/lennox-must-face-class-suit-over-gas-fireplaces-judge-rules.html</a>



from the news column on the right



Did these people not realize that a fireplace has a fire in it? Did they not realize that fire is hot? It's a FIREplace.



Sorry...........maybe I'm missing something but to me this is just another symptom of what is wrong with our tort laws and the attitude of people in the country .

Gordy

Yup

 Ya know gas burns hotter than wood?????????



We are in the wrong trades I think there are openings in the Get money for being ignorant union.



Jeez I put my hand on the burner of the stove while it was on. I could not believe it was hot enough to burn me. It was on low I'm gonna sue.



Blame the lawyers with the Gaul to bring it to the court system, and a Judge willing to sympathise with the plaintive.  If I remember it all seem to start with that lady, and a hot cup of coffee between her legs. Opened the door just a crack





Write a book on "How To Make Money By Being Ignorant In the United States"





I think if someone is going to sue, they should have to cough up what they are suing for if they lose. That would put a stop to some of this nonsense.





Gordy

Steve Whitbeck

fireplace suit

The problem stems with the court itself. They will want a jury trial and the jury see's poor little homeowner with a nasty burn and then you have this great big company with ALL their money and guess what the jury does. You guessed - big settlement.

These are the same stupid people that would buy an ELECTRIC fireplace and then complain that it doesn't look like a real fire.



I wonder if this judge would allow a case where a person burned themselves on a hot pan because the manufacturer didn't have in their product literature that it would get very hot when placed over an open fire.

Constantin

Many moons ago...

... I burned one hand really badly on a steam radiator. Young kid I was then, I didn't realize that reaching through a radiator was a bad idea, compounded by a watch that prevented my hand from coming out again. I've burned myself many times since, but not that badly. Never thought I'd ever sue anyone on that. Got treatment, goo, followed by painful bandages, etc. Narrowly avoided skin grafts, etc.



I don't know the details of the case. I suspect that there is some sort of industry-accepted maximum allowable surface temperature just as there is in the home appliance business where I used to do some product development. Maximum allowable surface temperatures varied by material, etc. on the basis that some materials are better at burning you than others - For example, you can hold the carbon-carbon tiles that protect the space shuttle during re-entry at their edges with your bare hands, even if they are white hot due to the ridiculously-low thermal transfer through the material.



I agree that a loser-pays system like in Europe would help alleviate much of the contingency-lawyering. However, I also think it would help a lot in the main business of BtoB lawyering, where deeper pockets can usually greenmail not-so-deep pockets. But with over 90% representation in Congress, lawyers have little to fear, is my guess.

TonyS

I use to feel the same way

about insulating sink traps...until I walked into a public restroom and found a man who fell out of his wheelchair with his face against the pipes and couldn't move. These laws are not to protect the strong and intelligent but rather to help those among us that are not so fortunate.

Gordy

In relation

 To the posted topic. I doubt that there are 500,000 consumers that fit into that categorey Tony. Glass fireplace doors have been around for years, and made by many different companies.  So why Lennox.

turtle

hot pipes

Touched the header pipe on my Harley with the inside of my forearm years ago do I have a case? LOL

Gordy

Ouch

Hot pipes look like cold pipes!



Gordy