Today, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy and Stonebarger Law filed a lawsuit on behalf of a 32 year old man, Brandon Covert, who suffered serious injuries to his hand when he tried to protect his family from a Samsung Galaxy “6 Active” Series phone which exploded and caught fire in his bedroom while he was asleep with his wife and seven month old child. The couple was awakened by the sound of a “gun blast”, then they observed fire and sparking from the phone that was on their bedroom dresser being charged. In an effort to douse the fire and save his family from the threat of a larger blaze, Brandon Covert grabbed the fiery device to dispose of it out of harm’s way.
The complaint alleges a history of incidents by consumers who have complained about overheating Samsung phones over several years and various different models. The suit alleges that the safety risk of overheating phones was known by officials at Samsung well before their recent recall of the 7 Series, and raises serious concerns that earlier models suffer from the same design and manufacturing defects.
Frank Pitre of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy said, “In my opinion, the problems with the Series 7 phones are just the tip of the iceberg. Samsung has been aware that various models of their phones have presented safety risks and they simply haven’t addressed the root cause of the problems. They seem content to issue consumers replacement phones without eliminating the safety risk.”
Gene Stonebarger of Stonebarger Law said, "Samsung has exposed consumers to risks of significant harm by selling dangerous smartphone devices that have the potential to detonate internally and explode. People should not have to live in fear that they are carrying a potential ticking time bomb with them throughout the day or that their phone may ignite into flames while they sleep in their homes.
