Samsung Electronics America Inc. must pay $10.9 million to a Georgia man who said he was seriously injured when the company’s battery inside an e-cigarette device in his pants pocket exploded, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled Monday (June 23).
Jordan Brewer sued Samsung in July 2020, and a county judge held Samsung liable by default in September 2020 after the company failed to respond to Brewer’s complaint. In December 2020, Samsung asked the court to set aside the default judgment, but the court said, “Samsung’s action in pursuing its company protocol in response to similar lawsuits as ‘a failed legal strategy’ that was ‘willful and deliberate and done with indifference to the correct legal process or else was gross negligence.’”
In 2022, however, Samsung filed a motion with a new judge, who set aside the judgment, citing unclear damages and a lack of a hearing transcript. Brewer appealed, arguing Samsung didn’t meet its burden to justify overturning the judgment.
This week, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that the trial court improperly shifted the burden of proof to Brewer and should not have set aside the judgment based on an incomplete record. The court vacated the order, setting aside the judgment and remanded for reconsideration under the correct legal standard. Since that judgment is now vacated, Samsung’s related appeal trying to open the default was ruled premature and dismissed.