Earlier this year, security and entry-level home automation giant ADT was sued by one of its subscribers who claimed the company’s alarm siren was so loud it caused permanent damage to his hearing. The case brings up an interesting dilemma for a custom integrator: can you get sued by a subscriber for setting up a home theater that is deemed to be “too loud”?
In the ADT case, according to noted legal expert Ken Kirschenbaum of Kirschenbaum and Kirschenbaum, who is also a columnist for Electronic House’s sister publication Security Sales & Integration, the lawsuit alleged that ADT was negligent in exposing the homeowner to such a loud sound and in failing to warn him of the volume of the alarm, in addition to a products liability cause of action.
According to Kirschenbaum, ADT moved to dismiss the action on the basis the claim was not brought within one year of the incident which was a requirement in its contract with the subscriber. The company’s contract expressly states a client has one year to file any lawsuit—either breach of contract or product liability—against the company.
“This case would have yielded a completely different result if the ADT contract did not include the provision explicitly shortening the amount of time to bring the lawsuit. In breach of contract actions, a person typically has six years to bring the lawsuit, and for products liability cases it is two years, so the action would have been timely had this provision not been included in the contract,” says Kirschenbaum. Due to that one-year provision in its contract, the court ruled in favor of ADT and threw out the complaint.
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“Hearing loss is a common health problem and I am surprised that there aren’t more lawsuits against purveyors of noise,” says Kirschenbaum, bringing the issue to the attention of the alarm industry. “You’d be surprised how little it takes to cause hearing damage. We’ve all been to weddings, concerts and other places where the noise is deafening. I’ve wanted to start a lawsuit several times but calmed down; though I haven’t suffered hearing loss yet.”
For home owners, you are probably safe. According to the Dangerous Decibels website, which includes a link to the 3M Noise Navigator website that has a list of more than 1700 noises, a typical movie in a theater environment is 72dB. Listening to music in a living room is around 76dB. For the human ear, it takes eight hours of exposure at 85dB to begin hearing loss. For every 3dB increase, the exposure time that causes hearing loss is cut in half.
But at minimum you should check the sound level of your alarm and smoke detector sirens and it’s probably a good idea not to crank up the audio system to damaging decibel levels.
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