Samsung Battery Overheating: What the Official Records Say

What Battery Overheating Is and How It Can Happen

A lithium-ion battery stores a lot of energy in a small space, and that energy is released as heat when something goes wrong inside a cell. The term that comes up most often is thermal runaway: a self-reinforcing cycle in which heat inside a battery cell triggers chemical reactions that produce more heat, which can lead to fire or explosion. Once that cycle starts, it can move fast, which is why a battery event can injure someone before they can set the device down.

Most rechargeable devices carry a battery management system, the electronic circuit that monitors charge, temperature and current to keep a battery within safe operating limits. When that system works as intended, it can slow or stop charging, or shut the device down, as heat builds.

Overheating does not have one single explanation. The questions usually include whether the design of the battery or device played a part, whether a flaw was introduced when the product was made, whether the device was damaged, what charger or cable was used, and whether outside heat was involved. None of these is assumed; each is a question the facts answer. The federal consumer-product regulation on defects recognizes that "a product may contain a defect even if the product is manufactured exactly in accordance with its design and specifications, if the design presents a risk of injury to the public," as 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4 states.

For someone hurt in a battery fire, the cause of the heat shapes every later question, including who, if anyone, may be responsible. The site's general Lithium Battery Overheating page covers the broader topic of how lithium-ion batteries overheat.

If You Own a Samsung Phone: What the Official Records Say

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published recall notices naming Samsung Electronics America Inc., of Ridgefield Park, N.J., as the manufacturer of Galaxy Note7 smartphones. Each is described below only as its own CPSC page states it.

The first is recall 16-266, dated September 15, 2016, titled "Samsung Recalls Galaxy Note7 Smartphones Due to Serious Fire and Burn Hazards." Its hazard statement reads: "The lithium-ion battery in the Galaxy Note7 smartphones can overheat and catch fire, posing a serious burn hazard to consumers." The notice lists about 1 million units and says the recall "involves the Samsung Galaxy Note7 smartphone sold before September 15, 2016." The listed remedies are a refund or a replacement. Under its incidents heading, the notice states: "Samsung has received 92 reports of the batteries overheating in the U.S., including 26 reports of burns and 55 reports of property damage, including fires in cars and a garage."

The second is recall 17-011, dated October 13, 2016, titled "Samsung Expands Recall of Galaxy Note7 Smartphones Based on Additional Incidents with Replacement Phones; Serious Fire and Burn Hazards." Its hazard statement reads: "The lithium-ion battery in the Galaxy Note7 smartphones can overheat and catch fire, posing serious fire and burn hazard to consumers." The notice lists about 1.9 million units, which it says "includes the 1 million Galaxy Note7s recalled on September 15, 2016." It states that it "involves all Samsung Galaxy Note7 smartphones," including devices received as replacements in the earlier recall. Its incidents heading states: "Samsung has received 96 reports of batteries in Note7 phones overheating in the U.S., including 23 new reports since the September 15 recall announcement. Samsung has received 13 reports of burns and 47 reports of property damage associated with Note7 phones." Both notices state the phones were sold through wireless carriers, electronics stores and websites in 2016.

These records cover the Galaxy Note7 smartphones and units each notice names, not Samsung products in general. They say nothing about other Samsung phones, tablets or devices. A count of reports in a notice is a count of reports received; it does not establish what caused any one fire or burn.

A recall is a safety action, carried out with the CPSC, in which a manufacturer, distributor or retailer offers consumers a remedy such as a repair, a replacement or a refund. Federal law gives the CPSC power, after an opportunity for a hearing, to order those remedies for a product that "presents a substantial product hazard," under 15 U.S.C. § 2064. The same section sets what recall notices generally include, including the product's description, the hazard, the number of units, and the number and description of any injuries or deaths associated with the product.

A recall notice records what the agency and the company published. It is not a court finding of liability, and it does not establish that the product caused any particular injury. If your device is a Note7, a notice may be relevant to what hazard was identified and when, but causation and damages still depend on the individual facts. The site's page on the Galaxy Note 7 recall records walks through both notices field by field, and the lithium battery recall lookup explains how to compare a device against a CPSC notice. The CPSC Note7 notices name fire and burn hazards; questions about swelling are covered on the site's page on Samsung battery swelling records.

Records and Information That Often Matter in These Cases

After a battery fire, the days are often taken up by medical visits, insurance calls and cleanup, and paperwork can feel like the last thing anyone can face. Still, the records gathered along the way tend to carry much of the weight later, because each one connects to a different part of what a claim has to show.

If you were hurt, the records that usually matter include the following:

• Medical records describing the injury and the treatment, which connect the injury to the event and document its extent.
• Photographs and video of the device, the scene and the injuries, which show conditions as they were before anything changed.
• The device itself and any charger or cable used with it, which may allow the battery and circuitry to be examined.
• Purchase records or order history, which help show where the product came from, when it was bought and, for a recalled model, whether it falls within the notice.
• Fire department, police or incident reports, which record what responders saw.
• The names of anyone who saw the event or its aftermath.

For a Galaxy Note7 in particular, the earlier CPSC notice describes using the phone's IMEI number, located on the back of the phone or the packaging, to check whether a phone was recalled. That identifier ties a specific device to a specific notice.

As general information, what is preserved, and when, can affect what a claim is able to show. A device that has been discarded, repaired or exchanged may no longer be available for examination, and that can change which questions can be answered. That is a description of how evidence works, not a step that decides any claim.

Who May Be Responsible When a Battery Overheats

If a phone burned you or damaged your home, the question underneath everything else is whether the product itself was at fault, and if so, whose fault that was. Product liability is the area of law that addresses when manufacturers, importers and sellers are responsible for injuries caused by products that are defective or unreasonably dangerous. In concept, a claim generally needs three things: a defect, proof that the defect caused the injury, and damages that resulted. An injury on its own does not answer the first two; the facts do.

In a battery fire, the defect question usually points one of three ways, and each points to a different part of the product's story:

• A design defect, where the product's design itself is unsafe, which looks at how the battery or device was planned.
• A manufacturing defect, where a flaw was introduced during production, so the product differs from what was intended, which looks at how a particular unit was made.
• A warning defect, where the instructions or warnings were not adequate to address a risk, which looks at what users were told.

The federal defect regulation tracks these ideas. It states that "a defect is a fault, flaw, or irregularity that causes weakness, failure, or inadequacy in form or function," and that a defect "can also occur in a product's contents, construction, finish, packaging, warnings, and/or instructions," as 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4 provides. That regulation defines defect for federal reporting purposes; the state law that governs an injury claim has its own tests.

Responsibility is described by role, not by brand. The chain behind a battery-powered device can include a battery cell maker, a device manufacturer, an importer, a distributor, a retailer and, sometimes, a repair shop that replaced a battery. Federal law places a reporting duty on several of these roles: under 15 U.S.C. § 2064, a manufacturer, distributor or retailer that obtains information reasonably supporting the conclusion that a product fails to comply with an applicable consumer product safety rule or with a voluntary consumer product safety standard upon which the Commission has relied, fails to comply with any other rule, regulation, standard, or ban under that chapter or any other Act enforced by the Commission, contains a defect which could create a substantial product hazard, or creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death, must immediately inform the Commission, unless it actually knows the Commission has already been adequately informed.

For someone injured, the practical question is which parties touched the product and what each did. A conversation with an attorney can help sort out which parties may be involved, based on how the product was made, sold, repaired and used. The site's overview of lithium battery injury claims covers that supply chain in more depth.

Which State's Law Applies to Your Battery Injury Claim

If you live in one state, bought the phone in another and were hurt in a third, the rules that decide your claim may not be the ones you expect. A federal recall notice is national, but an injury claim is usually decided under state law. Product liability standards, deadlines, fault rules and damages rules differ from state to state, and no single state's rule is the rule everywhere.

A statute of limitations is the law that sets the period within which a lawsuit must be filed; missing it can bar the claim entirely. The length of that period, when it starts to run and what exceptions apply all vary by state, and some states also have separate time limits for product claims. The deadline that applies depends on which state's law governs and on the facts.

Fault rules matter if anyone argues the injured person's own actions played a part, such as how the device was charged or handled. Some states reduce what an injured person may recover by their share of fault; others bar recovery above a certain share; a few bar it for any share. Which kinds of losses the law may allow, such as medical expenses, lost earnings and pain and suffering, also varies by state.

When someone dies, the claim is often a wrongful death claim: a legal claim brought by surviving family members when a person dies as a result of another party's wrongful act or a defective product. Who may bring it, and what it may cover, is set by each state's law.

For a family or an injured person, these differences can decide whether a claim can go forward at all. If you are trying to understand which state's rules may apply and what deadlines may be relevant, a conversation through our case evaluation page can cover where it happened, when, and the product involved.