Edible Apple

Well, you can finally chalk one up to the Courts for dismissing what can only be described as a frivolous and moronic lawsuit. Back in 2006, a Louisiana man sued Apple alleging that the iPod was responsible for his hearing loss. The suit specifically mentioned that the volume on the iPod can be raised to over 115 decibels, a level sufficient enough to cause hearing damage. As a result, the plaintiff alleged that Apple’s iPods were “inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings.”

Seriously? Do we need warning signs on everything these days? Where does the nonsense end? Should people be able to sue McDonalds because their quarter pounders contribute to high cholesterol? Listening to anything on full blast ain’t good for your ears, and if you’re too stupid to know that on your own, I sincerely doubt a warning would do anything to help you out.

Luckily, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals felt the same way when they recently affirmed a 2008 district court ruling that rejected the plaintiff’s attempt to initiate a class action lawsuit against Apple for not including appropriate hearing warnings on iPods. The Court noted:

The plaintiffs do not allege the iPods failed to do anything they were designed to do nor do they allege that they, or any others, have suffered or are substantially certain to suffer inevitable hearing loss or other injury from iPod use. At most the plaintiffs plead a potential risk of hearing loss not to themselves, but to other unidentified iPod users.