COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – LG Chem has failed to convince the Ohio Supreme Court to stop products liability litigation against it.
The company claimed a lack of personal jurisdiction in Lucas County but the state Supreme Court rejected that argument in an opinion issued June 22. Two plaintiffs have sued the company in that county, alleging they were injured when LG Lithium ion batteries in vape pens exploded in their pockets.
LG Chem’s principal place of business is in South Korea and it argued the plaintiffs failed to show the Lucas County court could assert jurisdiction over it. The plaintiffs argued the company conducted business in Lucas County, though they conceded LG Chem did not actually sell the batteries to the vape shops at which the products at issue were purchased by the plaintiffs.
LG Chem says the batteries were never made or sold to be used as standalone, replaceable batteries.
The court wrote it has granted only two writs alleging a “patent and unambiguous lack of personal jurisdiction” in the past 40 years. It noted an affidavit from a sales rep that was “inconsistent.”
“(H)e testified that LG Chem did not sell or distribute LG 18650 lithium-ion batteries ‘to any customer located in Ohio’ in the three-year period preceding the Darrow plaintiffs’ injuries, yet he stated that LG Chem had shipped 1,160 such batteries to Ohio to fulfill three orders of an equipment manufacturer in 2013 and 2014,” the ruling says.
“Even accepting the assertion that the manufacturer was ‘located in Macao,’ the delivery of the batteries to Ohio shows that LG Chem had some connection to Ohio…”
Due process requirements for personal jurisdiction are yet to be sorted by the trial court.