Crock-Pot Pressure Cooker Lawsuit Claims Safety Measures Failed To Prevent Severe Burns

Lid explosions are still occurring on a number of newer pressure cooker models, years after the first recalls and lawsuits were filed.

Just weeks after nearly 2 million Ninja Foodi pressure cookers were recalled due to pressurized lid explosions, a Minneapolis woman has filed a lawsuit indicating her Crock Pot Express experienced similar safety problems, after the lid lock feature failed and caused her to experience severe burn injuries when the pressure cooker exploded.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Aaqila Robinson-Bey in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on May 15. It names Sunbeam Products, Inc., and Newell Brands, Inc., as defendants, alleging they released and marketed a dangerous product while overstating the effectiveness of safety measures that were supposed to protect consumers.

Robinson-Bey’s claim is one of numerous pressure cooker lawsuits filed in recent years, claiming that safety measures designed to keep the lid from being opened while the contents are pressurized often fail, with unsuspecting consumers opening the pots, only to be sprayed with boiling hot liquid.

This has led to several massive recalls in recent years, including a Ninja Foodi recall affecting 1.8 million pressure cookers announced on May 1. The manufacturer, SharkNinja, reports it had become aware of at least 106 burn injury reports related to lids opening while still under pressure, with 50 of those injuries involving second- and third-degree burns.

Robinson-Bey’s lawsuit indicates her injuries occurred due to simillar problems with the design of the Crock-Pot Express Easy Release Pressure Cooker.

She was using the pressure cooker in June 2021, when she unknowingly lifted the lid while the contents were still under pressure, something the safety features were supposed to prevent. As a result, she was sprayed with the pressure cooker’s scalding hot contents, resulting in serious and substantial burns, according to the complaint.

“Defendants’ Pressure Cookers possess defects that make them unreasonably dangerous for their intended use by consumers because the lid can be rotated and opened while the unit remains pressurized,” the lawsuit states. “As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ intentional concealment of such defects, their failure to warn consumers of such defects, their negligent misrepresentations, their failure to remove a product with such defects from the stream of commerce, and their negligent design of such products, Plaintiff used an unreasonably dangerous Pressure Cooker, which resulted in significant and painful bodily injuries upon Plaintiff’s simple removal of the lid of the Pressure Cooker.”

In a trial over a similar Crock-Pot pressure cooker lawsuit held late last year, a federal jury in Colorado ordered Sunbeam and Newell to pay more than $55 million to a woman who suffered burns over 13% of her body. However, following post-trial motions, the award was reduced to $9.1 million in actual and exemplary damages late last month. 

Ninja Foodi and Crock-Pot designs are not the only ones linked to pressure cooker lid explosions. In 2023, a Best Buy Insignia pressure cooker recall was announced for nearly 1 million devices, and a Sensio pressure cooker recall pulled about 900,000 devices off store shelves. Both were linked to pressure cooker explosions caused by failures of the lid safety designs.

Given design problems linked to products sold by various manufacturers, including Sunbeam, Ninja Foodi, Instant Pot and others, financial compensation may be available to those who have suffered injuries due to pressure cooker explosions. Pressure cooker injury lawyers provide free consultations to help determine whether individuals nationwide are eligible to pursue a lawsuit.