car fire

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Massachusetts

My son was sitting in the driver's seat of his car drinking a soda. He was not driving at the time. The soda spilled on the seat and got into the power seat motor causing it to catch fire. The whole driver's seat went up in flames. We are lucky he was not injured. Do we have any legal recourse through the manufacturer of the car?

for what? An electric motor is not designed to be subject to having liquid poured on it. That kind of removes the liability of the manufacturer.

Now, it you have a couple hundred thousand dollars spare you are willing to spend on this, I have an angle on an idea of how you can argue this where this would be an expected scenario and as such, they are liable. Of course, no guarantees of winning but hey, I figure spending a couple hundred thousand to try to get back a couple hundred bucks is surely worth it.

I bet it'll cost more than a couple hundred bucks to replace a power seat, if leather with electric heaters, add even more. If it has seat side airbags, take a second checkbook.

I'd check a wrecking yard, you may find one that would match and bolt right in.

Nice try on trying to blame someone else, I'm continually amazed at the creativity that exists. You should have him keep the soda's away from the dash area as well.


BTW, how do you know for sure it was the electric seat motor? Power switch would have been on the left, motor underneath. There is airbag seat pressure switch, possible side airbags if you have that feature, or possible coils and temperature switches for electric heaters if you have that feature. You don't mention make/model/year/options, some vehicles have other electronics in the seat as well, but those are the common ones.

=Kiawah;2691400]I bet it'll cost more than a couple hundred bucks to replace a power seat, if leather with electric heaters, add even more. If it has seat side airbags, take a second checkbook.

Click to expand...

I'm thinking more in the line of a 1989 Oldsrustmobile.

So what's the damage? Did the motor burn out? Did the entire interior go up in flames? What's the damage?
Since this hasn't been submitted to an insurer I suspect that Mr. Justalayman is right about the model and year of car.

Good luck

If the car has cup holders, it would be reasonable for the manufacturer to know that someone may have a drink in that car and that the drink may be spilled on the driver's seat.

If it is a 1989 Oldsrustmobile, you'll have a hard time, since Oldsmobile is gone.

It is perfectly reasonable to expect that food and beverage will be consumed in the passenger compartment of a consumer automobile.

The seats and trim must be able to withstand ordinary spills to be safe, without bursting into flames.

The interior electrical of a car should not self ignite, definitely never under normal conditions.

Spilled drink in the passenger compartment is normal conditions.

Electrical parts are made to withstand moisture without becoming engulfed in flames. That does not mean the part would not fail. Electrical systems, particularly those inside the passenger compartment are designed to fail without smoldering, let alone fully sustained ignition.

The issue of you having a viable case or not hinges on the extent of your damages. If you had been personally injured, there would no doubt that you would have a good case that a lawyer would take on contingency.

Stevef said:

If the car has cup holders, it would be reasonable for the manufacturer to know that someone may have a drink in that car and that the drink may be spilled on the driver's seat.
.

Click to expand...

that was what I was alluding to in my post.

Even with that, there are many problems to overcome. There is no power to the motor unless the operating switches are activated. You can put a motor under water and nothing will happen to it if there is no power running to it.

Many vehicles don't even have the switches on either the side or the front of the seat base but on the door so there would be no power what so ever near the motor unless you were actually operating the seat.

Then, even if it got wet, it is very unlikely this would happen. For it to cause a fire, it would have to cause a short that was low enough resistance to allow enough current to flow to cause enough heat to ignite some combustible material close by. The short would also have to be of high enough resistance so there isn't so much current flow the fuse for the circuit blew. It would have to maintain that shorted condition long enough to produce enough heat to ignite some material and if the fluid is causing the short, it simply isn't going to happen because the fluid would evaporate from the heat.

Then, you need to realize where the drive motor actually is. It doesn't set on the floor and is completely covered by the seat above it. There is very little exposed from the side, if any.

So, if you are setting in a car, spilling liquid on the motor and having it cause a fire are extremely remote, if at all possible. If the door is closed, it would be very difficult to actually wet the motor. Fluids spilled on the door side would likely end up on the carpet between the seat and the door jamb. If spilled on the seat, the fluid would either run to the rear of the seat bottom, or be soaked up by the fabric of the seat and further blocked by the foam cushion below the finish material.

It is more likely the cigarette he dropped when he was hopping up off the seat he dumped his beverage on to avoid getting a wet crotch caused the fire.

Glad I'm not the only one who was thinking that. Cars are simply not that poorly designed that a spilled drink would set the seat on fire...if they were, it would be all over the news!