A New Mexico man recently filed a new Instant Pot Duo pressure cooker lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. He claims that he was seriously injured by the cooker and that the manufacturer, Midea America Corp., sold a product that “suffers from serious and dangerous defects.”
Plaintiff Claims Pressure Cooker Ejected Scalding Hot Contents
According to his complaint, the plaintiff purchased the pressure cooker online from Amazon.com in 2017. He includes Amazon as one of the defendants in this case.
On about July 5, 2022, the plaintiff was using the cooker to prepare a meal when he was able to rotate and open it while it was still under pressure. This allowed the scalding hot contents to be forcefully ejected from the cooker onto the plaintiff. He suffered serious and substantial bodily injuries as a result.
Cooker Failed to Work As Advertised
Like many other plaintiffs who have filed similar claims, this plaintiff blames the manufacturer for failing to be sure that its safety mechanisms worked as advertised.
The user manual, which accompanies each unit sold, notes that the cooker has a “float valve” that rises as the cooker heats up and builds pressure, locking the lid in place. This mechanism is supposed to prevent the lid from being opened while there is pressure inside the cooker.
The plaintiff claims that this mechanism is defective. Despite the manufacturer’s claims to the contrary, “the lid of the pressure cooker is removable with built-up pressure, heat, and steam still inside the unit,” he notes in his complaint.
The defendants should have known about these defects, the plaintiff further asserts, but “put profit ahead of safety by continuing to sell its pressure cooker to customers, failing to warn said consumers of the serious risks posed by the defects….”
Plaintiff Suing the Manufacturer and Amazon
In addition to suing Midea America Corp., this plaintiff is also suing Amazon. He claims that Amazon “substantially participated in the marketing, import, distribution and sale of the subject pressure cooker,” which he says caused his injuries.
Typically, Amazon has escaped liability in cases such as these by presenting itself as simply an advertising platform. The responsibility lies with the seller, Amazon argues—a position that has been successful until recently.
Starting in 2020, some courts across the country began ruling that Amazon is a merchant seller for purposes of product liability law and should be held to the same standard as other merchant sellers like Walmart or Target.
In 2019, for instance, a New Jersey court found Amazon to be the seller—not simply a broker or facilitator—of a defective scooter that caused injuries to a young boy. Amazon later settled the case with the plaintiff.
Other Pressure Cooker Lawsuits
Many other pressure cookers have been named in similar lawsuits. These include the Sunbeam Crock Pot, Tristar, Ninja Foodi, Aldi Ambiano, Bella Cucina, NuWave Nutri-Pot, Philippe Richard, and more.
A recent case tried in Bergen County Superior Court of New Jersey ended in a $2.85 million settlement for the plaintiff. The plaintiff’s counsel had the cooker X-rayed, which showed a slightly bent link inside the locking mechanism of the cooker. The plaintiff’s experts blamed this defect for allowing the cooker to open as it did under pressure.
Exclusively focused on representing plaintiffs, especially in mass tort litigation, Eric Chaffin prides himself on providing unsurpassed professional legal services in pursuit of the specific goals of his clients and their families. Both his work and his cases have been featured in the national press, including on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Comments for this article are closed.