Farberware Lawsuit Filed Over Pressure Cooker Burns, Injuries Caused By Design Defect

The lawsuit claims Farberware expressly indicated the safety features would prevent the lid from being removed while the contents were under pressure.

Unreasonably dangerous design defects caused a Michigan woman to suffer painful pressure cooker burn injuries, when the lid of a Faberware 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker failed to prevent the lid from opening while the contents were pressurized.

Lasheone Green filed the complaint (PDF) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on January 13, indicating that the Farberware Pressure Cooker lacked adequate safety features or warnings about the risks, since the manufacturer placed profits ahead of consumer safety.

According to the lawsuit, Green suffered serious and substantial burn injuries from the pressure cooker in January 2019, when the lid was able to be rotated and opened while the pressure cooker was still under pressure, something Farberware’s advertisements expressly claimed could not occur. Green was left with first and second degree burns to her abdomen, breasts and lower extremities, after the scalding hot contents exploded out of the pressure cooker and landed all over her body.

“The incident occurred as a result of the failure of the pressure cooker’s supposed ‘mechanical safety feature,’ which purports to keep the consumer safe while using the pressure cooker,” the lawsuit states. “In addition, the incident occurred as the result of Defendant’s failure to redesign the pressure cooker, despite the existence of economical, safer, alternative designs.”

Green presents claims of strict liability and negligence, and seeks compensation for injuries, economic losses, and pain and suffering.

Pressure Cooker Lawsuits Over Safety Feature Failures

The case joins dozens of similar pressure cooker lawsuits filed in recent months, each raising allegations about unreasonably dangerous designs and defective safety features on several modern devices, including Crock-Pot, Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi and other brands.

Most of the accidents involve severe pressure cooker burn injuries which occurred after the lid was removed while the contents are still under high pressure, typically resulting in burns covering a large percentage of the user’s body. However, other injuries linked to pressure cookers have included eye injuries, broken bones and other complications that resulted from electrocutions, spills or explosions.

As more of these electric pressure cookers have been introduced in recent years, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued several pressure cooker recalls over problems where lids were able to be opened while contents are under pressure, allowing hot contents to be expelled and causing a scald or burn injury to individuals in the immediate area.

Most recently, a massive Crock-Pot recall was issued in November 2020, impacting nearly 1 million 6-Quart Express Crock Multi-Cookers with lid locking defects, after at least 99 burn injuries were reported.