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Yet another class action lawsuit hit the mobile phone company Samsung over allegations that the battery in various Samsung devices causes them to explode and burst into flames.
Plaintiff Dale Holzworth claims in his class action lawsuit that the lithium ion battery Samsung uses in its devices is defective and can cause overheating and explosions.
The infamous Samsung Note 7 mobile device was removed from the market for its exploding batteries, but, alleges the plaintiff, other Samsung devices use the same battery and are subject to the same problems.
“Samsung manufactures and sells smartphones which pose a threat to the safety of consumers. These dangers made international headlines when numerous Samsung Note 7 devices exploded and burst into flames leading to a complete recall of the product. Samsung has yet to determine the cause of the problems with the Note 7, and continues to sell, market, and distribute other smartphones which are at risk of overheating, fire and explosion. Samsung recalled the Note 7 while leaving other dangerous products in the marketplace. Unfortunately, the problem is not limited to the Note 7,” alleges the Samsung class action complaint.
The plaintiff alleges that he purchased a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge device and, although Samsung recalled the Note 7 devices famous for fiery explosions in 2016, the company failed to recall other devices that may be affected by the same problems.
According to the complaint, in 2016 the plaintiff’s Galaxy S7 Edge caught fire while it was charging in his son’s room. As a result, alleges the plaintiff, his son’s mattress and bed sheets caught fire and molten metal burned several holes in the carpet.
“Outside of the Note 7 recall, Samsung has taken no steps to recall or warn consumers about the risks of overheating, fire and explosion posed by their Subject Phones,” alleges the plaintiff.
According to the complaint, Samsung owners have been complaining about their devices overheating and catching fire since 2011; however, Samsung chose to increase battery power despite this knowledge. Samsung has failed to take complaints seriously and provide compensation beyond replacement with “similarly risky products,” alleges the plaintiff.
Further, says the class action lawsuit, Samsung has demonstrated it is aware of the overheating problem and has relied on unproven technology called “thermal spreading” to attempt to address the issue.
“According to Samsung, the thermal spreader it designed was ‘unlike conventional thermal spread technology,’” points out the plaintiff. “Samsung’s team responsible for designing the system further stated that ‘due to the spatial limits of smartphones, the cooling system’s cooling capacity alone is not enough to cool the device. We need to calculate the amount of electric current and optimize the heat control algorithm to minimize occurring heat. In other words, the new thermal spreader hardware controls the heat more effectively but the software heat-control algorithm must be made compatible to ensure best performance.’”
Samsung has also been hit with class actions in New York and California over allegations that other Samsung devices have caught fire, not just the Note 7.
According to Holzworth’s class action, Samsung encourages people to use their Samsung devices constantly and keep them on their person; however, this is dangerous and irresponsible, alleges the plaintiff, when the devices contain batteries known to overheat and potentially cause injury.
The plaintiff seeks to represent a Class of Massachusetts residents who purchased a Samsung S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, S6 Active, S7, S7 Edge, S7 Active, and Note 5. The plaintiff alleges Samsung is in violation of Massachusetts consumer protection laws and was unjustly enriched by selling phones with overheating batteries.
The plaintiff is seeking damages and disgorgement of profits by Samsung and an enjoinment against the use of the battery in Samsung devices.
The plaintiff is represented by Joseph J. Siprut, Todd L. McLawhorn and Ke Liu of Siprut PC, Niall P. McCarthy, Anne Marie Murphy and Eric J. Buescher of Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy LLP, and Gene Stonebarger, Richard Lambert and Crystal Kelly of Stonebarger Law APC.
This Samsung Smartphones Defective Battery Class Action Lawsuit is Dale Holzworth Sr. v. Samsung Electronics America Inc., et. al., Case No. 5:17-cv-02531, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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176 thoughts onAnother Samsung Class Action Lawsuit Says Phones Overheat, Explode
Hello I had this happened about 5 months ago and was wandering if I can still get on this lawsuit Jose H perez 2707991971 if you would give me a call it would be greatly appreciated thanks.
My hands were burnt I couldn’t use them for 3 days. Samsung is doing everything in their power for me not to get some sort of compensation. I have provided everything they wanted.
My Samsung A53 battery is severely swollen and I was told by a technician at Best Buy that it is in danger of exploding. Samsung told me that the phone is damaged and they are not responsible. What can I do?
My phone just explode make my bed damaged badly what can I do
I had issues with the note 4, 7 and now 20
add me
I bought a Samsung phone from Walmart 2021 a month later I saw that the AO2s back cover was starting to swell out been hassling with the company for almost 5 months I sent them pictures of what the phone was doing and the sent me a box to ship it back for repairs because they told me they would take care of it so I sent it in after the received the phone they removed the Battery and replaced it with a dummy Battery and sent it back stating that my warranty is up which is had a month left on the warranty what they did with Criminal intentions wast to remove the bad Batter with Criminal intentions to defraud me by deception they did not fix my battery they sent the phone back without repairing it even though it was still under warranty and it was in Criminal intent you can clearly see this I documented everything so I just want to know if there’s somebody out there that’s willing to take my case.
I will start this message by saying that, as a first-time user of a Samsung smartphone device,, I am astonished that the dangerous issue of overheated and swollen batteries still festers in the consumer marketplace. I have already made my views quite known to Samsung. My major issue deals with being left to deal with a swollen battery in a Samsung smartphone — a dangerous mechanical defect and design flaw.
The swollen battery is obviously a major problem with the Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone. I’ve experienced this issue two years in a row — once while the phone was under warranty (expired in April 2021) and lately just over a year later in April 2022 after the warranty expired. Like other users who complained about this issue, I also use a Samsung-branded wireless charger to charge my phone. The Samsung name is embossed on the face of the charger.
A class-action lawsuit seems to be warranted now since this issue is an obvious major design flaw, not to mention a massive safety defect that puts its user at risk of injury or property destruction. This expensive device should last longer than a year or two, and users should not have to sponsor or even subsidize Samsung’s flawed products. I was furious to find out that I had to pay for a mechanical defect that was NOT customer-initiated — regardless of the in-status or out-of-warranty status of the smartphone. This imposed matter is unreasonable, especially since this mechanical defect violates everything reasonable with the warranty of fitness for the intended use. Is Samsung telling users of its smartphone that encasing a battery that is subject to overheating and swelling is its business model of “planned obsolenscence?”
Samsung customer service wanted me to stop using the phone…and I don’t have a backup phone. But, why should I be placed a great inconvenience when this smartphone is used most for business purposes in my work as a management consultant to converse with my customer in addition to employees who work for me. Now, I’m left with no choice but to spend hundreds of dollars two years later to buy another smartphone after buying this brand new Samsung Galaxy S10 phone direct from Samsung in January 2020.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone needs to be recalled from the market. Samsung needs to remedy this issue by providing a phone that does not place anyone at injury or property damage risk due to the mechanical defect that this product poses to its users. The alternative action would be to buy back these phones to remove them from the marketplace. Samsung also needs to reimburse in full any amount spent by phone owners to correct the mechanical defect and damage caused by the swollen battery and overheating. All these actions reduce dramatically the risk of injury and property damage to Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone owners and users.
Hot and swollen, that battery is gonna explode.
My Samsung galaxy s7 active kept getting extremely hot to even touch it. Was scared to use it anymore. Took it in to see why this was happening. They told me, it was because my battery was old. Well… that wasn’t it!!! Replaced battery still gets 🔥 EXTREMELY HOT 🔥! Was told I needed to send it in to see if they could repair it. I was sent back a phone that Was JUNK! I WAS PISSED! Nothing I was able to do about it. Phone never charged right and still got hot. So I had to just buy new phone. Ugh.
Had an S10 plus charging on our bed we left to go to my mom’s house just down the road from our place we were gone for about an hour. When we returned home our house it was on fire my 1 year old lab was in the house dead. Our whole house was full of smoke and the damage was horrible. We are still in the process of rebuilding out home.
Have always owned Samsung phones and noticed the heat. Thought it was something I was doing wrong. Have all my receipts and want to be included in any class action against them.
Burned my 10 year old daughters face left a scar