Defective machinery can have devastating effects for homeowners. A faulty product could potentially spark a fire, generating costly damage to part of a person's home or perhaps causing it to burn down completely. In extreme situations, a product defect can also inflict serious pain, injury and even death, potentially leading to costly hospital bills or emotional suffering from the loss of a loved one.
Considering such, if a person experiences negative consequences because of defective machinery, an experienced Kansas City lawyer can help seek justice by filing for a settlement and/or product recall in the courts.
This issue has been highlighted in local and national news recently as an investigation undertaken by Scripps Television Station Group, which includes several affiliated ABC, NBC, and Spanish-speaking networks, found dishwasher fires to be a common occurrence in 13 different cities analyzed across the nation.
According to reports, during Thanksgiving this past year, Kansas City couple Ken and Delores Logan encountered a kitchen filling with smoke, resulting from flames shooting out of their dishwasher. As a result, the Logans' home will not be suitable for living until April 2012, according to a segment from NBC Kansas City Action News.
While the Logans' encounter only yielded property damage and not injury, reports state that Kathrena Franks from Tulsa, Oklahoma also found her dishwasher to be malfunctioning and in an attempt to turn it off, seared off her fingertips on the apparatus' control buttons.
Reports go on to mention that a similar instance of appliance malfunction in Oregon led to the death of an elderly woman.
As such, a personal injury attorney is representing 11 different clients in a civil suit for damages and product recall against Whirlpool, the manufacturer of KitchenAid, Kenmore, Maytag and Sears brands. According to the NBC Action News piece, the suit claims that a design problem in Whirlpool control devices causes wires inside to heat up and eventually combust, leading to the dangerous health and safety hazards experienced by citizens all over the country.