Samsung Galaxy Note 9 battery catches fire in woman’s purse, lawsuit asks for sales to cease

Ben Schoon | Sep 17 2018 - 8:21 am PT

Samsung has left the Galaxy Note 7 debacle long behind it, and the company has been extremely confident in its latest Note devices in the time since. However, this month a Galaxy Note 9 went up in flames in a woman’s purse, and the company is being sued with a condition that asks for sales of the phone to cease…

Rewinding back to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 launch event in August, the company specifically mentioned that Note users “do not have to worry about the batteries anymore,” saying that the battery in the Note 9 is “safer than ever.” That’s a confident stance, but now the company is dealing with a lawsuit just barely a month after that launch.

As reported by the New York Post, an NYC-based realtor, Diane Chung, had her Note 9 burst into flames in her purse earlier this month.

She noticed that the phone was unusually hot during use and placed it into her purse where, minutes later, the phone was “whistling” and letting out thick smoke. As she was in an elevator at the time, Chung was understandably panicked during the experience, especially as smoke filled that elevator and the phone burned her fingers as she attempted to remove it from the purse. Thankfully, someone nearby was able to toss the phone into a bucket of water before things got any worse.

Chung has since filed a lawsuit against Samsung for the “traumatic” experience. She lost contact with clients as well as everything in her bag, and Chung is suing for unspecified damages. She says that Samsung should have known that the phone was defective, and her lawsuit asks for the sales of Galaxy Note 9s to stop.

Samsung has responded to the situation, stating that no other reports of Note 9s “exploding” have been received by the company. Samsung is investigating the matter.

This shouldn’t come as a total shock, though. Smartphone batteries are prone to failure regardless of the device they are in. Almost every smartphone model sees at least a couple of units with bad batteries, even including Apple’s iPhone. Samsung is simply a target thanks to what happened with the Note 7. If you’re a Note 9 owner or someone looking to pick one up, there’s probably no reason to worry.

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