“Apple Inc. won’t face a lawsuit claiming it didn’t immediately tell customers about the limited life of batteries for its iPhone or their $86 replacement cost, including delivery,” Thom Weidlich reports for Bloomberg.
“U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly in Chicago granted Apple’s request that he dismiss the lawsuit on the evidence and the law without a trial — a so-called summary judgment. ‘Apple disclosed on the outside of the iPhone package that the’ battery has ”limited recharge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced by Apple service provider,” Kennelly wrote in his Sept. 23 opinion, quoting the packaging. ‘Under the circumstances, no reasonable jury could find that deception occurred,'” Weidlich reports.
“Jose Trujillo sued Apple in Illinois state court in July 2007, accusing the company of consumer fraud and seeking class- action, or group, status. Cupertino, California-based Apple had the case moved to federal court,” Weidlich reports.
“Trujillo’s lawyer, James R. Rowe of Chicago, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment yesterday,” Weidlich reports.
Full article here.
Too bad the judge wouldn’t (or couldn’t *cough, tort reform, cough*) compel Trujillo and his lawyer to pay for any and all costs that Apple incurred relating to this frivolity.
In Canada, when you lose in court, you’re normally assigned the other party’s costs. Apparently works wonders for keeping the volume of jackass lawsuits down.
This judge should be promoted and take over East Texas Federal courts.
Whenever I drink a bottle of Corona, I wet my pants a few hours later. Can I sue Corona because they didn’t clearly state on the bottle that it can cause bladder relaxing?
Sheep Register… I believe they do the same thing across the pond in the UK too. The way it should be.
The Dude abides
MikeH…. Good call.
The Dude abides.
How about a stockholders suit against Trujillo’s lawyer, James R. Rowe of Chicago for expenses and damages to the AAPL stock value?
I hope he’s not related to Sol, the telstra guy
Where I come from, we hang those bastards.
Gawd. but do we EVER need tort reform in this country! (Of course, it will NEVER happen, but we still need it.)
The judge was nice he could have considered his action frivolous
In England, the loser must pay all of the opponent’s and the court costs. We need that here.
I agree with the other readers, Apple should seek compensation for costs related to defending themselves from this suit. That would help to curb this kind of frivolous lawsuit.
Two posts already on loser pays court costs and legal costs of opponents in civil suits, in England and Canada, not to mention OZ and NZ. In the USA, the legal profession thrives on frivolous litigation, outrageous damage awards (E. Texas specialty). But, countries like Canada are tending to adopt outrageous legal rules from the US, such as holding accountants responsible for their clients’ wrongdoings, something that formerly was not allowed.
At least we don’t have elections for judges and DAs here in Canada, where we have appointed judges and Crown attorneys are not elected. In view of the financial débacle at work now, the US needs to reform its legal systems and stop frivolous lawsuits by making it mandatory for judges to stop the lawsuits in such cases as this one where the judge used common sense, and to hold the lawyers accountable for class actions that they lose.
The US is going to lose its economic status if it doesn’t reform, and on these issues it has been shooting itself in the foot…i.e. is its own worst enemy. It all comes down to dysfunctional political systems. Hortense supports John McCain and Lady Guv.
In Canada, when you lose in court, you’re normally assigned the other party’s costs. Apparently works wonders for keeping the volume of jackass lawsuits down. —Sheep Register
Sounds great when you put it like that, but what happens when innocent people are forced to defend themselves against unjust corporate practices (refusal to apy health insurance claims, for instance) and fail to win their cases in court? This happens all the time in our blind and feeble-minded American legal system. It would be doubly unjust if the injured parties had to pay some asshole corporation’s legal expenses in addition to being unfairly treated in the first place. It’s a sticky wicket alright…
I think anyone that doesn’t realize immediately, without being told specifically, that a rechargeable battery will at some point need to be replace is either a total moron or never, one time, had experience with any product that required a rechargeable battery. I also find the latter to be almost impossible to believe, if someone is purchasing such an item as an iPhone—since most people had a R/C car or something with a rechargeable battery by or before they were 10 nowadays.
MDN Magic Word = “Open” as in “open” your eyes and observe the world around you… you might learn something.
Just my 2¢
Jose Trujillo must not be able to read. And James R. Rowe is Hose B.
alansky,
It’s a tough call, but not every single lawsuit against a health care provider is legitimate. It could be left to the judge to determine if the loser should pay the legal fees of the winning side.
Right now we have far too many frivolous lawsuits with no downside to filing them. There needs to be some way to correct this problem.
Fscktards.