Consumers Left to Sweep Up as Martha Stewart Tables Shatter

Consumers Left to Sweep Up as Martha Stewart Tables Shatter

Courts, feds, the press, Kmart and Martha turn their backs on consumers

As winter turns to spring, consumers across the country are once again waking up to the sounds of their Martha Stewart Everyday glass tabletops exploding into thousands of tiny pieces. The tables, sold at Kmart, have a long history of spontaneously shattering, and they don’t show signs of stopping anytime soon, not that anyone in authority seems to care.

Months after a federal court dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging that the tabletops are defectively manufactured, owners of the product remain without recourse and several hundred dollars poorer, as they are left to clean the glass off of their patios and sometimes dig it out of their skin.

Late last year, a federal court in Illinois rejected class certification in the action, ruling that the court would have to decide individual issues of causation for each plaintiff, making a class action impracticable.

The suit, originally filed in 2005 on behalf of lead plaintiff Michelle Ronat, alleged that Kmart refused to give aggrieved customers refunds or replacements, since the tabletops weren’t covered under warranty. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) — named after convicted felon and media darling Martha Stewart — when confronted by consumers, passed the buck to JRA Manufacturing, the Chinese company that produced the tables. The manufacturer, in turn, said the problem lay in a design defect attributable to MSLO’s designers.

The suit, prosecuted by Horwitz, Horwitz & Paradis, a New York class action firm, sought replacement tabletops for an estimated 300,000 consumers. With tabletops potentially costing as much as $500 apiece, the action threatened to leave MSLO liable for up to $150 million.

The glass replacements cost so much because JRA, the manufacturer, declared bankruptcy in 2007, leaving consumers unable to obtain factory replacements. Instead, they have been forced to have glass custom-made to fit their tables. In some cases, individuals could end up paying more for the replacement top than they did for the entire table set in the first place.

Although MSLO contends that a relatively small number of consumers were affected,

ConsumerAffairs.com has received hundreds of complaints over the past five years, as have other Internet sites. Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the complaints increase predictably each spring, as tables are brought back outside and exposed to the sun's rays.

Additionally, according to the lawsuit, because the tabletops weren’t covered under warranty, Kmart didn’t keep records of most complaints. As a result, the complaints Kmart does have on file likely represent only a fraction of actual incidents.

Similar complaintsAffected consumers’ experiences are strikingly similar, and the most common – and disturbing – thread is that there is no way to know when a table is about to explode.

“My Martha Stewart Glass topped patio table exploded after only one year of use,” writes Marylou of Brockton, Ma. “I am left with a set of six chairs and no table to use. I received minor cuts from cleaning up all of the exploded glass which is fine but emotionally I was very upset after spending all that money on something that is now useless to us.”

In a similar vein, Judy of Unionville, Oh., writes, “Table shattered into a million pieces. Paid good money for poor quality. It is so sad especially with the economy like it is. Who can afford this[?]”.
A considerable number of consumers have had more than one table shatter. Some bought a set and ended up having several shatter over time, as happened to Lisa of Austintown, Oh.

FULL STORY: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/martha_dismissed.html