Lawsuit: Eclipse glasses damaged the eyes of Castle Rock woman
Attorneys seek class-action status in a lawsuit filed in Denver District Court against a Denver company that gave away “unsafe and hazardous” glasses for viewing the solar eclipse, claiming they damaged a Castle Rock woman’s eyes.
The lawsuit was filed Sept. 2 on behalf of Kendall Heise and Kim Heise of Castle Rock against Europtics Inc. of Denver, which owns the store at 7301 Santa Fe Drive in Littleton where the couple received eclipse glasses.
“After using the Europtics eclipse glasses, Ms. Heise began to experience injuries including, but not limited to, discomfort, blurred vision, increased sensitivity to light and distorted vision and certain of these harms and impairments continue,” the lawsuit says.
Attorneys Kevin Hannon and Justin Blum, who filed the lawsuit Sept. 2, are seeking class action certification so that anyone who received the glasses and then used them to view the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 could join the lawsuit. They are seeking compensatory damages, injunctive relief to fund medical monitoring and court costs.
The attorneys are seeking class action status because they believe it would be impractical to file individual lawsuits for such a large group of plaintiffs, given that Europtics is a leading optical chain store in Colorado. The exact number of potential litigants would not be known until Europtics provides the number, the lawsuit says.
Europtics gave customers who bought glasses at their stores the eclipse glasses after buying them from Amazon, Europtics officials say. They declined to comment further.
The eclipse glasses did not meet international safe-eclipse viewing standards called ISO 12312-2 even though it advertised on Aug. 10 that its glasses were safe, the lawsuit says. The company advertised that not using safe glasses could cause irreparable damage, the lawsuit says.
“Even short exposures can cause vision impairment, including solar retinopathy. Exposure of the retina to intense visible light causes physical damage to the retina itself, triggering chemical reactions within the retina,” the lawsuit says.
But when Kim Heise used the glasses it was apparent her eyes were not protected, the lawsuit says. The legal complaint questions whether Europtics adequately tested the glasses before giving them away to buying costumers.