83-year-old woman sues Apple after walking into glass retail store door - Page 4

Originally Posted by Macky the Macky

She was sextexting at the time or she'd have seen the door. Women do this all the time.

Originally Posted by Macky the Macky

You forgot to end your list with:
Do cartwheels down glass staircase: Priceless

Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton

Apple should just print a menu for payouts for injuries:
Broken nose: $1 million
Stubbed toe: $650,000
Nosebleed: $450,000
Trip on stairs: $350,000
Static electric discharge: $250,000
Mild discomfort of any kind: free iPod Touch
Mild embarrassment: free $50 iTunes Gift Card

Originally Posted by ewiz77

this is a joke.

Originally Posted by nkhm

There are very obvious labels on the glass. This woman is just stupid and should be embarrassed rather than angry.

Originally Posted by j1h15233

Just when I think Americans can't get any dumber. We are so lazy in this country and nothing is ever our fault. How fast could she have possibly been walking and how forward was she leaning to have hit her nose on the door first and to have broken it? I hope she doesn't get a dollar out of this. Or maybe, it would be even better to pay her one dollar less than whatever fees she is having to pay for legal representation.

Originally Posted by haar

appleinsider really should have posted the picture of the store front. (macrumours)
yes the glass is clear... but there are four rows of grey balls on the floor where the display window section is... i would guess four feet worth... and i would assume that they are there to prevent or make it very hard for a smash-and-grab. thus, even if the glass was not there, if woulf be very difficult to walk over those balls. thus it is common sense that you should use the door, and not wall over the balls.

I think apple should change the white lines on the glass to hollow apple icons...

i wonder if this lady has problems with the sliding glass door in her house... i've walked into those. (a note to the family of that granny... make sure to supervise her entry/exit to/from the patio... she has a history of crashing into glass)

Originally Posted by SSquirrel

No not case and point. Read the facts of the Hot Coffee case. I even posted a nice link for it earlier. 180-190 degree coffee caused burns over 22% of her body in 2-3 seconds, including 3rd degree to 6% of her body. The boiling point for water is 212. Sit down on something that will trap the water and pour near boiling water in your crotch and see what happens. Spilling it was her fault (which was why McDonald's was viewed as only 70% at fault), but it was significantly over the temperature it should have been served at, which was all their fault.

Originally Posted by SSquirrel

No not case and point. Read the facts of the Hot Coffee case. I even posted a nice link for it earlier. 180-190 degree coffee caused burns over 22% of her body in 2-3 seconds, including 3rd degree to 6% of her body. The boiling point for water is 212. Sit down on something that will trap the water and pour near boiling water in your crotch and see what happens. Spilling it was her fault (which was why McDonald's was viewed as only 70% at fault), but it was significantly over the temperature it should have been served at, which was all their fault.

Originally Posted by SolipsismX

Reread his comment. He's agreeing with you.

Originally Posted by elehcdn

And there is a lot more to this story. The woman was not driving, she was in the passenger seat. She spilled the coffee just taking the lid off to add milk and sugar. The coffee was hot enough that her clothes adhered to her body. Originally, she was only trying to get McDonalds to help out by paying her medical bills, but they refused to do so offering only $800. Prior to the lawsuit, they tried to settle again, primarily to pay for the medical bills, but McDonalds refused to settle. A mediator tried to get McDonalds to settle for $225,000 (the hospital bills were in the $130-150k range), but they refused. Once it went to trial, the jury found out that McDonalds had had a number of complaints and lawsuits before without taking any action, so they awarded 2 days worth of coffee sales (2.7M) in punitive damages because of the callousness in their dealings with the lady. In the end, the settlement was reduced to punitive damages of less than half a million.

That said, the McDonalds case and treatment for 3rd degree burns running more than $100k is a far cry from a broken nose ... In this case, the lawyer does not question that there are markings on the doors, but he claims that his defendant sees well and still did not see them. Personally, I think the point is that even if she sees well, that does not mean that she was paying attention to where she was walking. This case could just as easily be a lawsuit against a city for uneven pavement ....

Originally Posted by Daekwan



Yeah I gotta call bullshyt.

How do you not see the window, nor the actual DOOR HANDLES on the glass door?

Originally Posted by ewiz77

this is a joke.

Originally Posted by Naboozle

How so? It is common knowledge that you should place visual cues on large expanses of glass that someone might otherwise mistake for open passage.

Originally Posted by z3r0

Is it also hard to believe that a store has a door? In all her 83 years has she never entered a store or seen a glass door?

Originally Posted by jragosta

Look at the pictures on Macrumors:
http://www.macrumors.com/

Now explain how she has a reasonable claim. There are several feet of silver balls on the floor.

Originally Posted by CogitoDexter

Actually, I don't think this claim is entirely without merit.

A clean plate-glass window that has no visible frame and goes from ground to ceiling is, essentially, invisible. I've walked into such things before, albeit with no after effects beyond bruised pride, and I'm no dunce about modern architecture (it was my first choice of career).

In the UK, such plate-glass 'walls' generally have patterns or lines etched into them at approximately eye-level so that there is, at close quarters, a visual barrier which prevents most if not all people colliding with them.

Apple undoubtedly has third-party liability insurance for this sort of event and it will almost certainly settle long before the case comes to a formal hearing. That doesn't mean that the 'little old lady' is taking them for a ride though. She was injured and the injury was something that could have been foreseen and prevented with a small amount of care and forethought.

It's not a joke, and it's not an 'only in America' thing either. I'm one of Apple's biggest fans (I've spent ungodly amounts of money on Apple kit!) and I'm still capable of seeing that she has genuine cause here. The $1m is a lawyer's starting-pistol it's not her ultimate game plan, I'm sure. I dare say she'll settle for a fraction of that. After all, broken noses cost money to fix! I'd say it will probably be settled for the cost of her treatment, plus a reasonable sum for inconvenience, pain and distress, so probably treatment plus $25k maybe. And we'll probably never know, since it'll be tidied up nicely in a confidentiality agreement!

Originally Posted by djsherly

Based on that picture it wasnt initially clear to me whether the balls were inside or outside of the shop and I have better than 20/20 vision.

Originally Posted by j1h15233

Just when I think Americans can't get any dumber. We are so lazy in this country and nothing is ever our fault. How fast could she have possibly been walking and how forward was she leaning to have hit her nose on the door first and to have broken it? I hope she doesn't get a dollar out of this. Or maybe, it would be even better to pay her one dollar less than whatever fees she is having to pay for legal representation.

There's an episode of Justice League Unlimited where John Stewart is standing trial on an alien world and the judges say that they solved their lawyer problem by forcing the lawyers to adhere to the same penalty of their clients if they lost. In some cases, this would be one of the best things that could ever happened to this country.

Originally Posted by msantti

1 million dollar iTunes gift card!

Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum

Apple should offer to settle with an iTunes Gift Card

Originally Posted by Buzzz

This reminds me of the woman who sued a mall because she fell into a fountain.

Originally Posted by hmm

All I have to say is.... don't believe everything you read on the internet. Also at that age it's possible that her vision and depth perception are pretty bad.

Originally Posted by SolipsismX

It wasn't this woman, was it?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPW8xmI4w6U

Originally Posted by Garamond

*Knock-knock*

Who's there?

Little old lady.

Little old lady who?

I didn't know you could yodel.

Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton

Apple should just print a menu for payouts for injuries:
Broken nose: $1 million
Stubbed toe: $650,000
Nosebleed: $450,000
Trip on stairs: $350,000
Static electric discharge: $250,000
Mild discomfort of any kind: free iPod Touch
Mild embarrassment: free $50 iTunes Gift Card

Originally Posted by pedromartins

she broke her nose and she asks 1 million?
1 million????
1 million???
really? 1 million???

even 1000 dollars would be too much!

1 million? lol

Originally Posted by capoeira4u

In the McDonald's coffee case, the jury awarded Stella Liebeck, the 79-year-old coffee victim, $160,000 to cover medical expenses and compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages. In the end after several appeals, she ended up settling out of court and received around $600,000. I wonder how must this lady will get from Apple.

Originally Posted by jragosta

The cases are different enough that the McDonald's case isn't much guidance.

While I would never have voted with the jury in the McDonald's case, the fact is that there were hundreds of previous complaints over the same issue. McDonald's was clearly aware that there was an issue and chose to continue to serve coffee at the same temperature (either that, or the local store ignored company policy - which amounts to almost the same thing). Because of that, almost the entire award was punitive.

In this case, there is no history of people walking into glass doors and breaking their nose. That makes it simple negligence (even if the lady wins) and punitive damages are very unlikely to be awarded. So at most, she could recover her medical and legal expenses. But even that is unlikely - since so many millions of people use the store without difficulty.

Originally Posted by Andysol

You don't know that. Those complaints wouldnt be public until a hearing. While if I were betting, I would also guess it wasn't prevalent. But the truth remains- that we don't know. It might come out there are a thousand a year.

The saddest part is depending on the state, the punitive damages are now likely capped. I believe in Texas it's $150k- definately not enough to make them change any policies (or whatever company is found liable for whatever and given punitive damages). Said it once- ill say it again. Tort reform sucks.

Originally Posted by jragosta

Clearly, it's not happening often.

Originally Posted by jlandd

Now it will be!!! : )

Originally Posted by grant 

p.s. Apple blows, get a real machine and go Linux.