AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) - Texas courts have jurisdiction over a lawsuit by a man who improperly hooked up an LG lithium battery to his e-cigarette, causing it to explode in his pocket, the Texas Supreme Court ruled.
It doesn’t matter that LG sold batteries Texas only for industrial use – and explicitly warns consumers they can be injured if they use its batteries for that purpose – the court ruled. By selling batteries for any reason in the state, LG met the test for personal jurisdiction.
The decision marks at least the third state to rule that LG can be sued by consumers who misused its batteries. In this case, Tommy Morgan sued LG after he bought one of the Korean company’s batteries and used it to recharge his e-cigarette. LG argued it didn’t distribute its batteries in Texas for resale to consumers and they were intended only for use in products such as cordless power tools and laptop computers.
“Where, as here, a defendant purposefully avails itself of the privilege of doing business in Texas by selling and distributing into Texas the very product that injures a plaintiff, personal jurisdiction is not lacking merely because the plaintiff is outside a segment of the market the defendant targeted,” the Texas Supreme Court ruled, however, in a May 19 decision.
The Mississippi Supreme Court issued a similar decision last year, and California courts also have exercised jurisdiction over LG. In its warning to consumers, LG says “the well-known risks of misusing” lithium-ion batteries in e-cigarettes and vaping devices “have been recognized by the FDA, the US Fire Administration and the Consumer Technology Association.”