Nearly 24,000 euros will have to pay the German firm Vorwerk, manufacturer of the popular Thermomix, a woman by the severe burns that led to this appliance when you jump the lid when preparing a puree of zucchini. He suffered first-degree burns on the chest, arms, and neck. Ran July 2015 in his home in the madrid suburb of Fuenlabrada. After nearly two years of litigation, the Court of First Instance 52 of Madrid gave the reason just a week ago.
The lid broke because your Thermomix TM-31 was a defect in the rubber of the lid. And at a certain temperature, busting
The lid broke because your Thermomix TM-31, which he bought with financing, had a defect in the rubber. When you reach a certain temperature, burst. The manufacturer was closed in band from the beginning and refused to indemnify Marcelina Fabián Muñoz for the serious injuries suffered. The version of the German firm was that the accident was due to a “poor maintenance” of the appliance. Spain is the third country in the world, after Germany and France, with further global implementation of this robot kitchen.
Photo courtesy of the summary with the chest burning Marcelina. THE COUNTRY
Tired of Vorwerk not to listen, the woman, 58 years old, went to the lawyer Francis of Assisi Vargas Salmerón, president of Lawyers without Borders Mundi in Spain. Waiting to be recognised judicially that it was the device and not she the cause of their physical damage has lasted four years. The pressure in the apparatus fired the lid and the blades of crushed scattered the cream that was preparing to boiling temperature. The blast wave pushed back to Marcelina Fabian, in addition to cause first-degree burns on the thorax, which resulted in “wounds bleeding intermediate depth”. Had to go to the burn unit of the hospital of Getafe. Was out of action for 18 days.
The lawyer Francis of Assisi Vargas. THE COUNTRY
The statement, issued a week ago by the Court of First Instance 52 of Madrid, condemns Vorwerk España to compensate the woman with 17.914,70 euros. To this amount we must add the interest accrued since that filed the lawsuit, according to the court ruling, which will raise the compensation, together with costs of prosecution, above 24,000 euros.
The accident occurred in the kitchen of the home of Marcelina Fabian on July 22, 2015. The device I had purchased in 2014 through a distributor in your area, in the street, France of Fuenlabrada (Madrid), by the system of direct sales. The woman financed the purchase of the device, which today costs about 1,200 euros.
Before you have to undertake the lawsuit, the attorney Vargas Salmerón conducted 15 requirements to the company offering the possibility of an agreement. The German firm, after three changes of venue in Madrid in those years, only answered when the lawsuit was already in progress.
Thermomix refused to the course of judicial proceedings its liability in the accident and argued that this was due to a lack of maintenance of the appliance. But the judge if you see the fault and negligence of the firm in the accident. “For more than [the company] try to deny that the cause is not in the malfunction of the machine, but in a lack of maintenance, what is certain is that the lid of reference was opened when it was not their time, to the surprise of the plaintiff [Marcelina Fabian] and causing the burns are injuries (…)”. And trench: “The circumstance of out sauce during cooking has not been borne out, categorically, as a cause”.
With the purchase of the appliance, the woman was provided with a book of recipes that included how to prepare, among other supplies, the cream of zucchini. That book was subsequently modified by another which varied in some respects and when it affected, unlike the previous one, in that he had to leave to spend time before you open the lid, so that dropped the temperature. But this was not the case: the lid sprang “spontaneously” due to a defect of the anchor. The judge estimated that Vorwerk Spain also should take care of the expenses that had to face Marcellina Fabian to clean the walls of the kitchen, which were full of mash. The ruling was appealed before the Madrid Provincial court, but the compensation must make it effective.
Warning, “the cover of the device might not work”
In the fall of 2015, nearly four months after the accident, Marcelina Fabian received from Thermomix a letter in your mailbox, that figure in the proceedings. In it you are alerted of a “precautionary measure that could potentially affect the units produced during October 2012 and August 2014”. “Safety tests regular and intensive have shown,” added the letter from the manufacturer, “the board of the lid might not work properly”. And cited that this failure had been detected precisely in preparations of cream, to the point that “the hot food could come out of the glass, which can produce in some cases burns”.
At the same time that the letter, and sent him a new lid seal, of another color, to bend the previous one. And we extended one more year warranty. In April 2016, the firm wrote a letter to the attorney Marcelina Fabian in which he indicates that the accident was due to “inadequate maintenance” and had to “replace some parts due to wear”.
Aftermath
After the accident, the woman telephoned to the company telling them what happened. An employee removed the machine the following week and left the other as long as the repaired. Has not come back to see yours. The 15 of December 2015, five months after the accident, He wrote a letter to the company in which she noted that it had not yet recovered from the aftereffects and complained of the lack of interest in the signature for your state of health.
