Nintendo sued over DS Lite charger
by David Hinkle 
{ Dec 22nd 2008 at 4:32PM }
Back in January of 2007, a fire raged through a Kentucky home. The victims of the fire were compensated according to their insurance coverage. But, now that insurance company has filed a complaint (warning: pdf link) against Nintendo with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky yesterday, stating "The [DS] was defective in design, manufacture and/or because it failed to warn consumers as to dangers associated with it... due to defects existing within the Product which caused a risk of overheating and fire, the Product was recalled by Nintendo."The Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company is seeking the 263,000 they paid out to the family, as well as court costs and interest.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
EvilPants @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:48PM
Uhhhh, am I at risk here with my charger? or is this going to be flamed like crazy?
Erik Stroud @ Dec 24th 2008 12:22PM
I wouldn't worry. I wouldn't be amazed if they some how damaged it or even were using a third party charger instead. My DS lite charger gets hot, but no where near hot enough to erupt into flames.
Sora @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:31PM
mine have never over heated, I guess it could it you plugged it directly into the wall, I don't so I don't care, seems like have suing each other alot lately.
andy @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:14PM
I thought the same thing...
megapenguinx @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:14PM
Is there anything Nintendo isn't being sued over?
And most likely you aren't at risk at all.
leonus @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:30PM
alot of companies seem to be lawsuit happy this Generation! it's like suing video game companies and console companies have become a new hobby for them.
Triptych @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:53PM
WARNING: A defect in any of your electrical equipment may start a fire.
Is that the kind of warning they wanted?
Geddes @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:44PM
i hate people
Sticky @ Dec 22nd 2008 8:06PM
Hmm...I don't remember any recall...
Matdredalia @ Dec 23rd 2008 8:24AM
That was my thought, too. And we have approximately five DS Lite chargers in my household. Seven if you count the two European ones my husband brings with him when he comes to visit.
If there was a recall, I never heard about it. It sounds to me like the insurance company is just pissed they had to do their job and actually pay out.
milan @ Dec 22nd 2008 9:52PM
Greedy insurance company.. oh, that's redundant. It's just a a regular insurance company.**
KaBob799 @ Dec 22nd 2008 11:50PM
Warning: Electricity can cause fire.
KaBob799 @ Dec 22nd 2008 11:56PM
If they did issue a recall, then how did they fail to warn consumers? The onyl recall I can find online was of japanese chargers, so why would it even matter.
PigVenus @ Dec 23rd 2008 1:58PM
Let's see.... as of Jan 2007, Nintendo has sold over 10.18 million units in the U.S. alone (phat & lite combined) (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS#Marketing_and_sales).
Once single failure out of over 10 million sales (35+ million worldwide), is pretty darn good by any measure! Manufacturing defects beyond their control would likely account for a higher failure rate than that. Also, how can they confirm that is is the DS charger's fault? Sure they can fairly accurately pinpoint the origin of the fire, but the exact cause? Maybe it was wiring or a faulty extension cord?
Anthony @ Dec 23rd 2008 9:12AM
How can Nintendo be sued? They had the recall for one type of chargers on one of their sites in 2006. It was the kids FRICKN fault for not sending his charger to Nintendo for a newer one or however Nintendo was going to fix the problem.
image:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/2006/img_061215/fig1.gif
Link:
http://66.102.1.101/translate_c?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/2006/061215_2.html&usg=ALkJrhjSZVHw5vF325slsP314mgt-RAnwQ
There, the one on the left is the bad one, the two on the right are okay.
TWO FRICKN YEARS AGO. Nintendo shouldn't have any problems with this.
Vince @ Dec 23rd 2008 9:20AM
I'm not sure about the success rates of frivolous cases like this, but if American judges keep siding with dopey lawyers on this one, gaming companies may want to rethink selling their products en masse to the US.
While I appreciate the US justice system (it's much more credible than where I am), there are times when people take things too far.
SephFinale @ Dec 23rd 2008 12:50PM
Game companies can't stop selling in America, they'd crash the economy further.
Kayla @ Dec 23rd 2008 9:45AM
I know that my charger make's a ringing noise when i plug it into my ds... maybe i should get a new charger....
chibi_wings @ Dec 23rd 2008 4:29PM
I bet the kid did something to his DS charger (i'm thinking the wire must have been hanging loose or something from being treated without care). My DS charger is always plugged into the wall/socket and my house hasn't burned down.
Bolts Justice @ Feb 13th 2009 6:18PM
They have no case. Manufacturing defects can happen in flawless designs, causing overheating. If this were common, then Liberty Mutual would have a case, but it's not common. On Google, I could only find stories about this one incident.
Kat2 @ Dec 23rd 2008 10:06PM
The recall was of JAPANESE chargers. Unless they imported, they're screwed. If they did import, it's probably their fault either for not using the proper adapter, or just because they're using a Japanese Lite in the first place.
One person on Digg was speculating that it was one of those fake DS Lites that they busted recently, but then how could Nintendo be sued if it wasn't actually their product?
Bakerboi @ Dec 26th 2008 6:16PM
The stupidity of gamers never ceases to amaze. No matter if a video game caused the drop of a third atom bomb you'd all defend it until death.
These people didnt know all that information about a recall and what if they didn't get their DS in 06? What if the child just got his early this year or late last year? You don't know when or how it was purchased at all.
If the family had have sued Nintendo for their device burning their house down would it be more acceptable then? And because they didn't the insurance company will. Either way they were in for getting money out of this case.
For one DS they lost everything else and you all are sitting up here yelling out about how greedy the insurance company is for suing Nintendo for something they should be sued for?
Their device malfunctioned, burned down a family's house, now they get sued. That's the way it goes. What if the people had of died in the fire? Would they be enough to warrant a sue over your precious Nintendo?
Stupid
Stupid
Stupid
Stupid
Sometimes you "gamers" are fluckin ridiculous.