“For one 83-year-old grandma, the most confusing piece of technology at an Apple Store wasn’t an iPad or iPhone — it was the front door,” Kieran Crowley and Todd Venezia report for The New York Post.
MacDailyNews Take: She obviously didn’t see the new Apple TV UI. 😉
Crowley and Venezia report, “Evelyn Paswall, a former Manhattan fur-company vice president, claims the tech company’s signature glass architecture is a menace to little old ladies after she failed to see the glass door at a Long Island location and smashed her face. Now the Forest Hills, Queens, resident is suing Apple for $1 million, saying the company was negligent for not elderly-proofing the store’s see-through facade.”
“Approaching the store, Paswall didn’t realize she was heading straight for a wall of glass. She smashed her face against it, breaking her nose, she claims in her suit filed in the US Eastern District federal court,” Crowley and Venezia report.
MacDailyNews Take: Paswall? Not without a broken nose.
Crowley and Venezia report, “In her suit, she argues that Apple should have put marks on the glass that older people could spot before they come face-to-face with disaster. Paswall, once one of the top dealers in high-price Russian sable furs, declined comment.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, um, $1 million seems just a tad excessive, granny.
We have a feeling that Steve Jobs wouldn’t approve of safety stickers marring Apple Store glass. Perhaps there’s a more elegant solution. Maybe some etched Esslinger lines or, since Steve seemed loathe to look backwards, something similarly evocative, but more in keeping with the times: Instead of gauche circlular safety stickers, how about Home buttons etched into the glass? That way, grandmas are safer, and Apple retains elegance while also subtly reinforcing a signature product element.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
She broke her nose? What, was she sprinting?
No. Not running, she just kept trying to walk thru the glass. After the third time a kindly passerby stopped her. LOL
Maybe the 2 door handles that are hanging in the air, just floating there, should have been the clue!
Some people can never be helped! I hear Microsoft has Windows too. People have been crashing into Microsoft’s Windows for more than a decade now. It did a lot more damage than a broken nose too!
$1,000,000? She has one hell of a pricey plastic surgeon. A pride hurt smuck who is showing her true colors.
The old bag must have lost her money to Bernie and is now trying to recoup it from Apple. haha
Broke her nose?!?!? She must of been so excited about the new iPad that she was plowing full steam ahead! No, sorry. You walk into a telephone pole shame on you. You walk into very clean glass doors. Shame on you an kudos to the staff for keeping them so clean you don’t even see them. Instead of suing, she should just ask the employee who cleaned them that morning to come to her house and make her windows look like Apple store doors.
While I don’t exactly agree with 1 mil for a broken nose, the elderly (especially women) often have more brittle bones from osteoporosis. It is quite possibly for her to have broken the bone in her nose from the same kind of hit that would just bloody a nose in a younger person.
Can’t buy that. There is not much of a bone in the nose to break (just a short bit up at the top). It’s just cartilage and is quite malleable, and hitting the nose hard will break a heck of a lot of capillaries, resulting in no more than an ounce of blood running everywhere. Osteoporosis would have nothing to do with this kind of injury.
Some people will sue over anything, including their own stupidity.
Story reminds me of the Windex commercials though lol.
Loved that – thanks!
As many times as I saw that ad, when the crow says “Let’s do it again” it still cracks me up.
refusal to accept any personal responsibility -> lawsuit -> increased or more thorough health and safety implementation/legislation -> diminished quality of life for everybody.
A tragic but accurate summary of virtually every workplace here in the uk…
NOPE!!! Sorry, Granny. What it the hell happened to 1. PERSONAL F-ING RESPONSIBILITY & 2. those things called ‘accidents’?
Seriously, is there no shame in this world anymore? Why in the world should anyone have to make this world idiot/baby proof for the morons?
If you’re not paying attention, someone else doesn’t have to stroke you a check. Grandma-ma should be ashamed for even pulling this crap.
Maybe it was ‘too’ clear. I’ve walked into stuff before – should I sue everyone for stupid crap I’ve done. I am soooooooo tired of sue, sue, sue.
Nothing is FoolProof to a talented Fool.
Her Fool skills are great.
LIberals and Trip and Fall lawyers, destroying the US as fast as they can!!!!
That’s why we need to adopt the Bri-ish concept of “you sue, you lose, you pay.”. Reign in the filthy ambulance chasers.
yes-yes!
Ditto. Loser pays is the way to go! Too bad trial lawyers provide such a big chunk of Dem party coffers–they’ll never let it see the light of day.
No need to use the word “liberal”. It tends to show the ignorance of the people that use it. Liberal what? Fiscally liberal? Socially liberal? Liberal is just a substitute for the boogeyman.
Lawsuits like these are ridiculous, but when you use it to attack a broader issue outside of just “frivolous lawsuits are dumb”, you cheapen your own argument.
Whoa there, Steve! You’re using terms that are WAY too subtle. Do you think any of these people who use “liberal” as a swear word actually know what the word means!? Never mind ‘fiscally liberal’ and ‘socially liberal’.
On the topic of liberalism, here is one of the best definitions of the word, as described by JFK:
If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”
Liberal what? Such a nonspecific term that it means nothing.
But back on *topic*, without us knowing all the details, it is a bit challenging to determine what/who is at fault. Although, at first glance, I’d agree that this is simply a matter of someone not paying attention or visual impairment.
I like how liberals are to blame for everything you don’t like, or that pisses you off, that’s funny. I like that, I’m going to start using it in conversation.
“Great! It’s raining today, and we have that ball game to go to… It’s all part of the liberal conspiracy!!! Wait! What? the game is cancelled!!! Damn those liberals!!!”, “Oh no, my check engine light came on!! Well, it figures, with a liberal president in charge and all.”, “This pen is out of ink!!! Liberals, destroying pens and America!!!”
Not enough hugs for you growing up? It almost sounds like you want to bitch slap granny.
Poor eyesight, obviously didn’t see her own reflection in the glass. Perhaps she ought to sue her optician for failing to specify appropriate glasses.
That makes another million?
You notice she didn’t sue the homeless squeegee guy who had just made the glass so squeaky clean. She didn’t even tip him.
Saw the reflection, couldn’t believe that old lady was her so she ignored it.
She must also sue her doctor for not doing enough to give her strong bones instead of the osteoporosis nose she has to contend with!
Another million!
Bazzinga!!!
Maybe see is filing an ADA claim because Apple stores do not give reasonable accommodations for vampires like her that have no reflection.
I like MacDailyNews’ etched Home button idea! Kills two bird with one stone. Works on multiple levels. Steve would approve.
Steve would approve of an extraneous detail that seves no practical function? Really?
‘The glass was too transparent’ is akin to ‘the water was too wet’, or ‘the coffee was too hot’. The woman has only herself -or her optical prescription- to blame. If she pulls off this robbery, there’ll be a wave of idiots head butting Apple stores. *sigh*
While etched home button may or may not be the right idea. Artwork does have a purpose, (in this case even a practical one). Artwork or embellishment can serve to change our mood, lift the spirit and please the eye.
You’re suggesting that good design can involve the intersection of art and science?
That sounds so familiar…
Yes, it’s sounds like something a brilliant man once said. Now if I can just remember who that bespectacled man who said that was…
Haha! Fair enough, a great point well made 😊
@ Designer: +1
Pretty soon MS will etch all sorts of ‘branding’ stickers all over its doors to let people know that it’s Windows 8 Capable, Intel Inside, Genuine PlaysForSure, etc.
There are already white safety stickers a couple inches wide all across the front of the doors on all outdoor Apple stores. Not to mention the giant aluminum f*$king handles.
This makes as much sense as my blind uncle suing Apple if he decides to run around fast enough in the store to BREAK HIS NOSE.
This boils down to an old woman not realizing her vision and bone strength are not what they used to be and suing a company with deep pockets because Apple did not step in and stop the ravages of time for her.
my apple store doesn’t have the stickers.. then again My apple store has the Door open 90% of the time for people just to walk right in.
behind most of the glass are displays, the only “clear” section of the glass is the door.
Obviously the granny was a graduate of “Midvale’s School for the Gifted”
(if you don’t understand the reference.. look it up.)
Plus 1 on the Midvale reference ;^)
Hmm… every outdoor Apple store I’ve seen has had them. Admittedly that’s only a half dozen or so. They are not obvious, it’s more that you perceive them rather than see them. Maybe you missed them? Or maybe the stickers are in my region but not all of them.
For what it’s worth, the original article says there were stickers on the door.
Also, good Far Side reference.
There’s a good chance I just didn’t see any if all apple store have them.
push/pull….that’s no difference to a lawyer…unfortunately.
1 for the reference!
“Paswall, once one of the top dealers in high-price Russian sable furs…”
Methinks it was Karma. The Spirit Sable got even :o)
Yes, “once one of the top dealers in high-price Russian sable furs”, but now broke and with an opportunistic lawyer, makes sense.
I knew Apple had a nose for a smashing success.
“Paswall”? I don’t think she can.
The problem with any etchings is that they can’t “stupid-proof” the doors. What do they put on windows to keep pigeons from flying into them? Silhouettes of hawks or owls or something like that? Maybe a silhouette of an Android or the Dell logo would stupid-proof them.
On second thought, that would probably attract them. Bad idea.
Apple Store glass: tougher on vampires than holy water.
if it was so clear she couldn’t see the door then how did she know it was the door in the first place and not one of the windows?
Its not funny. This is completely Apples fault for using glass instead of bricks and mortar. Which are clearly softer for Seniors to walk into. I think if Apple stopped cleaning those windows they can fix the problem automatically for free. Let’s give our Seniors money for spilling Thier hot coffee and for walking into things. Uh oh the greatest generation is here childproof everything. Thier sense of entitlement knows no bounds. Great legacy you leave your grand children way to go.
The hot coffee thing was a decent case that got stupid. McDonald’s served their coffee within a degree of boiling and more than 10 degrees hotter than any other restaurant or coffee shop. The customer actually had second degree burns from the spill and I think was right to sue to get them to stop that practice.
That said, “Contents hot” warning labels, getting millions for what amounted to her being a klutz. That is where it gets stupid. Even the cases that have some merit are made ridiculous by the time the lawyers are done.
This, though… this is just dumb.
@ Rex: Spot on. McD knew that you use less coffee when you make it near-boiling water. They just got caught in their short-cut ways.
Regarding those lawsuits: They are called “contingency” which means you don’t pay a thing unless there’s a settlement. It also means that the risk-reward for the lawyers is pretty high. They collect quite a large sum of every contingency they win, so they sue for millions when a couple hundred grand would pay medical bills and other “inconvenience” amounts.
I’m so tired of this argument. There’s absolutely no excuse for putting a container of hot liquid in your lap. No matter her injuries, she bears the responsibly.
If I put a knife in my pocket and cut myself, or a loaded gun in my backpack with the safety off, or left my house with several candles burning on the rug, or dozens of other examples, I can’t blame anyone else for the consequences of my completely reckless behavior.
The case was an outrage.
There’s no justification for her being awarded a single dime.
The hot coffee thing was a decent case that got stupid.
No, it wasn’t. She put the coffee between her legs.
Brick doors are never going to work.
Let’s see:
– beer plus lamppost plus no proximity-detertion warning siren on lamppost= $2,000,000
– lampost plus checking somebody out across the street plus no warning siren = $5,000,000
– thinking about quantum theory plus step down curb incorrectly plus no warning barrier, and tear knee ligament = $50,000,000.
Yehhhh. That’s the ticket.
Doubt she’ll get it. Apple may settle out of court for pennies. Once the lawyers take their cut she’ll get 10 percent. This isn’t abut the money as much as making a statement.
This is probably the most bogus law suit I have ever heard of… and I’m rather surprised by MDN’s take. In a case like this I would expect at least one little line of tougue-in-cheek response.
What’s going on, MDN… trying to show some sort of “respect for the elderly” by not commenting on the sheer stupidity of this? If this woman had been 23, I suspect the MDN take would have been significantly different.
AFAIC, being older doesn’t excuse you from being called stupid.
I’m over sixty and wear glasses. I’ve been in Apple stores all around the country (including 5th Ave in NY; SD, LA & SF stores in CA; all the AZ Apple stores; Las Vegas, and Ann Arbor, MI) and not once have I had an issue with seeing the doors.
What makes Apple store doors any more of a hazard than the glass doors of other retailers? Because they don’t have stickers or printing on them?
Well guess what? They don’t need any of that. Just like other retail stores, Apple stores come with a big pair of very large and visible door handles… usually finished in brushed nickel.
Apple doors are transparent, very clean and reflective… but they aren’t invisible.
Now, I’m not saying this woman might not have been injured walking into an Apple store door, but I have little doubt this was due to anything other than inattentiveness on her part.
And inattentiveness isn’t symptomatic of being elderly. If anything, it’s symptomatic of being young.
Get glasses you cheap, fur wearing, fast walking, lawsuit enabling, gum sucking, cane waving dolt.
(Sorry Grandma, nothing personal)
Well, she had to sue for 1 million because after lawyer’s fees she will have about $500 left.
Cue lawyer bashing in 3…..2……1…
So if i’m blind and i walk into a wooden wall can i sue?
“Paswall”
Ever notice ppl’s last names are often hilariously compatible with how they are making the news or their line of work? Preordained karma.
Not really funny. I once turned to leave an Apple Store and smashed right into the window next to the door thinking it was the opening. They hadn’t yet put any white dots on the glass (they have some now, though down a bit low). My eyesight is good and my reflexes are quick but it was 100% invisible.
As opposed to 47% invisible? Good eyesight and quick reflexes can’t compensate for poor comprehension.
I guess you’re right, because I can’t comprehend your reply.
Yeah still funny.
The whole front of the store is glass. She was perceptive enough to break her nose on the door (not the window next to it)- how’d she know where the door was?
Thanks Steve for the common sense.
She needs this money to keep gas in her Cadillac DeVille sedan, which the blind old bag is still driving.
LMAO!!!
Guess the Retina screen she was after is wasted on her.
Haha!!
Best. Comment. Ever.
(snicker) yes, and among the most disrespectful.
I have no intention of wasting an ounce of respect on an old woman with no personal responsibility paired with a sense of entitlement and full of greed only matched by her ability to harm herself.
Whether it be with hot coffee or with glass doors.