Fantastic Furniture bills itself as home of “Australia’s Best Value Bedding and Furniture.” However, its Worx chairs reportedly have a rather disconcerting design defect: cutting part of toes off customers. The roughly 100,000 Worx chairs have been recalled by the company after two people lost toes.
Mark Bulman, lost the middle toe of his left foot last year after it was caught in the inner side of one of the legs. Eleven-year-old Trae McGovern (right) also lost part of a toe after he stubbed his left foot on a Worx chair. It is still unclear how the plastic chair could have this dangerous flaw.
In products liability, we generally look for three types of defects: manufacturing, warning, and design defects. This could be either a manufacturing or design defect. It is possible that the plastic form was made in a way that has unintended sharp elements. Alternatively, the design itself may lend itself to a trap or cutting area. Either way, this would satisfy the American standard under either the Restatement (Second) or Restatement (Third) for a design defect. Having a toe cutting chair would certainly run afoul of Restatement Second Section 402A and the consumer expectation test. “One who sells any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer or to his property is subject to liability for physical harm.”
Likewise, it would seem an easy case to make out a design defect under Restatement Third Section 2(b), which states that a product is
(b) is defective in design when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design by the seller or other distributor, or a predecessor in the commercial chain of distribution, and the omission of the alternative design renders the product not reasonably safe.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has asked Fantastic to recall the chairs. The company agree due to a possible “entrapment or laceration hazard.” Customers can either return the chairs for the reimbursement of $27 – or take free insert plugs to make the chairs safe.
It would make for a strong torts case under product liability if it were tried in the United States.
Fleming: check out: Kroger Co Save-On Store v. Jacqueline Presnell, 515 N.E.2d 538 (Ind.Ct.App., 1987).
I expect an apology for your accusation of fraud.
“…the company fixing the chair design going forward”
For example “the ‘tort tax’ in the ladder manufacturing industry is estimated to be 20% of the cost of each household stepladder.”
Product Liability by Victoria Sherrow, Alan Marzilli, Infobase Publishing, 2010, p.59
I can see the company fixing chairs going forward, but I can’t see them being at fault for those 2 events.* Freak accidents and clumsy or stupid people using chairs other than as chairs.
*I have no doubt a lawyer can get a jury to demand money from a company, but that has nothing to do with actual fault.
“–it is foreseeable that someone would sit on a chair while barefoot”
Yeah, it is.
Not foreseeable that a barefoot guy would stumble into it, knock it over, and stick a small toe into the small opening when lying on its side (there’s no other way that could have happened).
Not foreseeable that a 12 year old would stick his toe in the slight opening and then lean back and tip over.
What do you call little boys who lean back in their chairs? My mom called them an accident waiting to happen. More head injuries from that maneuver than toes lost, but you can’t sue anybody for TBI from sitting on chairs wrong …yet.
Lawyers are utopians.
“…a folding patio lounge chair
…he ended up with head and neck injuries that were disabling, including a seizure disorder”
BS. That has fraud written all over it.
Chairs have been around a long time. People have been injured as a result of such things as collapses, but I don’t ever remember hearing about a chair cutting off toes. I disagree with Fleming–it is foreseeable that someone would sit on a chair while barefoot. Something is drastically wrong here.
I was involved in a product liability case involving a folding patio lounge chair. It was supposed to be unfolded and then snapped into a fully open position, but it was put together too tightly. There were no user instructions and there was no warning that the user should hear an audible clicking sound when it was fully locked into position, much less that it would collapse unless the parts were locked. My client opened the chair as far as she could and sat down on the seat. Her weight caused the back to pop forward, striking her in the back of her head and slamming her head into the concrete patio. She ended up with head and neck injuries that were disabling, including a seizure disorder, as a result. She did prevail at trial.
Karen S: He walks with assistance. Guide dog. That is how I learned the story. The dog took him to the right lawyer back in 1986. A million to him, wife and dog, and a half million to the lawyer and his co counsel. Motivation. Motivation for Steelcase to hire a good welder and motivation for lawyers out there to take on iffy cases. It was real iffy back then. But Knights were bold and rubbers weren’t invented.
No need to fret–these FANTASTIC CHAIRS may be fantastic, after all. Ship all of the surplus “maiming” chairs to our ISIS pals. After all, these poor guys are in desperate need of some furniture, especially some chairs. Did you ever notice how every photo of these animals shows them sitting around, on dirt floors, barefoot? I can’t think of a better use for these chairs, if, and when, they are ever pulled from the market. Send them in a big box marked, TO ISIS, WITH LOVE.
2 toes lost from 100,000 chairs?
Hardly a “dangerous flaw”, more a flaw uncovered only by freak accidents, and only when barefoot.
Seems like an easy fix is available.
All in all, hardly the stuff of nightmares.
But I expect a lawyer’s nighttime commercial any day now.
BarkinDog – I hope the client was not paralyzed. Poor guy.
Nothing like making a product that will be taught in design classes as an example of what not to do.
In days of old and Knights were bold and condoms were not invented, there was a case in Saint Louis back in the mid 80s. A guy at Monsanto, a worker there, sat down in a secretarial chair and the back of it broke off and he broke his spine. The thing which broke was a 90 degree steel piece of metal welded from chair bottom to chair back. The welding was lame. It was obvious to look at it. It was a design defect in some respects and a bad job at the factory which was Steelcase. The chair was 23 years old. They were up north some where– out of state. The guy had a valid work comp case but no lawyer would consider this as a product liability case. The wife found a civil rights lawyer who took it on. He sued the manufacture company and the little office supply store in the city there which sold the chair 23 years before the accident. He filed in state court in the City of St. Louis where one could get a good jury. The Steelcase counsel moved to remove to federal court. Denied by the federal court, back to the City. At trial the defendants caved. $1.5 million to the injured guy. After that lawyers started thinking about taking on products cases. I heard that the lawyer who handed that for the plaintiff retired earlier than most guys do.
Wear shoes?
Why is this not a common sense solution especially for chairs in a restaurant.
It would appear there is a big problem w/ vaginal mesh. I see those class action solicitations all the time on TV.
Paul, That’s interesting. I assume you’re compensated for the time? I have worked some medical device lawsuits and they are almost always big bucks because someone died, or was severely disabled by the faulty device.
Nick – they pay really decent money for someone out of work. What is cool is while you are watching the trial you have little dials that you move up and down depending on how you agree with what is going on. They also do criminal trials. The prosecution from the OJ came over here to try out there material. Sadly, they did not have the ‘Dream Team’ to play against.
Product liability cases can be fascinating. You learn so much about a product, how it’s designed, manufactured, sold. I worked for an attorney that defended a major manufacturer of gas grills that had a problem w/ explosions. This guy was sharp and tough. He ate ham n’ egger plaintiff attorneys for a light breakfast. A word of advice. if ever you are injured by a product, make every effort to determine if the company has been sued previously and then attempt to hire the attorney[s] who has represented plaintiffs in more than just one case. The manufacturer will almost certainly have ace attorneys well versed in how to defend the lawsuit. You need a barrister who will not be their breakfast.
Nick – there is a company in Scottsdale, AZ that does mock trials for up-coming litigation. I was on one of 3 juries for a product liability case for a heart monitor. 2 of the juries held for the defendant, the last one (mine) held 11-1 for the defendant. Our holdout felt that somebody should be at fault and was looking at the biggest pockets. For the rest of us, the real guilty party had settled.
It is an inexpensive product with a cheap fix. You would have thought they would have caught that in product testing.
It looks like the legs roll inward at the bottom near the feet. If the edges were sharp, this would create two converging knives that could easily slice a toe off. Even if the edges were well rounded it presents a pinch point that could entrap a toe and cause an injury when you tried to pull it out. I guess the plug would fit into the leg at this point so that you could not slide your toe down between the two edges. I am not sure how the boy was injured by stubbing his toe on the chair though. This would seem to be two different problems.
“free insert plugs”
The chairs appear to be metal. I suppose toes are being caught on the inside of the chair leg (or something).
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jan/11/toe-slicing-chairs-fantastic-furniture-to-recall-nearly-100000#img-1
“Consumer expectation test?” I wouldn’t expect much of a $27 dining chair! It is interesting, however, that the Restatement doesn’t require reasonable quality control testing. Even if the design were okay for certain materials, such as wood, it might not be an reasonable design using molded plastic, which can be as sharp as a knife.
Wearing your Worx boots while sitting in one of their chairs might make your feet safer, too.