Personal injury lawyers are
licking their chops following a
jury's recent decision to award
$15 million to the parents of a
child who was severely burned
by bath water. Everyone connected
with heating the water
was hit for damages, including
the plumber, the water heater
manufacturer, the building
owner, the property manager,
and the local gas utility. The
parents won the huge award
even though the mother of
the seven-month-old girl who
received the burns had placed
the child in the bathtub and
left the room, giving the victim's
three-year-old brother a
chance to enter the room
unsupervised and turn on the
hot water tap.
The plumber in the case
had installed the water heater
13 years before the incident,
and the building had been
sold