Georgia woman loses use of left eye after Walmart-brand thermos explodes, lawsuit says
A Georgia woman is suing Walmart in a defective-product lawsuit, claiming that a store-brand thermos she purchased “exploded, resulting in serious and permanent injuries” to her face, eyes and body after she filled the container with hot soup.
Maria Lopez filed the lawsuit earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Columbus.
Lopez lives in Taylor County, which is located between Macon and Columbus.
She claims that sometime in the latter half of 2017, she and her husband, Nery, bought an Ozark Trail thermos from a Walmart in Douglasville. The 36-ounce, vacuum-insulated, stainless-steel bottle was said to be designed for hot and cold liquids, the lawsuit states.
On March 1, 2018, Maria Lopez made lunch for herself and her husband, cooking soup on a stove before pouring it into the thermos. Later that day, Nery Lopez tried to open the thermos so they could eat, but he couldn’t open it, according to the lawsuit.
He then asked his wife “to try to turn the handle on the top of the thermos while he held the base end,” the lawsuit states. “Maria Lopez did as she was directed, and in doing so, the top literally exploded, casting food and other materials into her face. Maria Lopez suffered burns and scarring, lost the use of her left eye, and significantly lost vision in her right eye as the result of the explosion.”
The lawsuit contends the thermos was “defectively designed and unreasonably dangerous” as it had no “adequate pressure relief mechanism to alleviate a foreseeable event such as occurred in this case.”
Lopez’s claim also cites a “failure to warn” the product’s user, noting that there were no warnings other than a tag cautioning consumers that “hot beverages will remain hot for several hours” and, “Do not burn yourself.”
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and specifies no dollar amount in possible damages.