Amazon Dodges Another Hoverboard-Fire Suit

Amazon.com Inc. got an early exit from a suit brought by a man who alleges a hoverboard fire at his home caused serious injuries and $50,000 in property damage.

Irvin R. Love Jr. didn’t sufficiently allege Amazon knew or should have known about four self-balancing scooter fires up to 11 days before it shipped him the Weecoo(TM) product, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia said. It dismissed Love’s negligence, failure-to-warn, and punitive damages claims.

Amazon has escaped liability in several product liability suits, including one over a hoverboard fire, on grounds that it acted merely as a conduit for other sellers and that a federal law to protect free speech on the internet gave it immunity. Appeals are pending in three cases.

Love said his “WEECOO(TM) Two Wheels Smart Self Balancing Scooters Electric Drifting Board Personal Adult Transporter” started a fire at his residence, according to the court. He sustained smoke-inhalation injuries and burns requiring skin grafts on his face, back, and shoulders while getting himself and his girlfriend out of the building.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced 20 hoverboard recalls, beginning in July 2016. More than 250 fire and overheating incidents have occurred since 2015, according the the CPSC’s website. The fires typically occur when the device is charging.

Even assuming that Amazon was the direct seller here, Love didn’t show how, when, or where Amazon received notice of the four prior fires before it shipped him the hoverboard on Nov. 23, 2015, the court said.

And the prior incidents must have been similar to Love’s in order to create a duty on Amazon’s part, the court said. But he “provided no facts from which to glean whether these prior incidents were sufficiently similar,” the court said.

Weecoo(TM) and importer Panda Town remain in the suit.

Penn Law LLC represented Love. Hawkins Parnell Thackston & Young LLP represented Amazon.

The case is Love v. Weecoo, 2018 BL 382262, N.D. Ga., No. 18-540, 10/16/18.