Defective / Recalled Consumer and Household Products

Settlement of wrongful death claims for the estate of a 39 year-old live-in caretaker who died from carbon monoxide poisoning in the home of her employer, a 90 year-old woman, who also passed away at the employer’s Massachusetts home. SUGARMAN attorneys filed suit against the owner of the property, a trust that named the elderly woman’s son as trustee, for failure to have working carbon monoxide detectors. After obtaining a preliminary injunction requiring the trust to place all proceeds of the sale of the home into escrow, the plaintiff settled with the trust before pursuing claims against an HVAC company who negligently serviced and maintained the home’s furnace, which had improper ventilation. The estate settled with the HVAC defendant shortly after the claims were filed. The caretaker, a Jamaican immigrant, left behind three adult children.

SUGARMAN lawyers secured $20.6 million in punitive and compensatory damages for a Colorado man whose wife was critically injured from a defective pool slide sold online and in stores by Toys R Us. The slide was imported from China and did not comply with federal standards regulating swimming pool slides. The jury award was the largest wrongful death/personal injury verdict in Massachusetts in 2011.

Settlement of wrongful death case on behalf of a family who lost a child as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. SUGARMAN attorneys brought product liability and general negligence claims alleging improper installation of a residential boiler, and a defect in the boiler which allowed it to create and introduce high concentrations of carbon monoxide into the home during foreseeable weather events, such as heavy snow storms.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a jury verdict to a SUGARMAN client for injuries caused by a defectively designed laundry machine. The case established precedent allowing into evidence safety changes made after the manufacture of the defective machine.