Sportspower Trampoline Recalls: What the CPSC Records Show

What the CPSC Recall Records Show About Sportspower Trampolines

A CPSC recall notice is the agency's public record of a product safety action. It names the product, the hazard, the remedy, the retailer and the dates of sale. The notices naming Sportspower trampolines are these, oldest first:

• CPSC recall 12-172, dated May 9, 2012: "Trampolines Recalled by Sportspower Limited Due to Fall Hazard; Sold Exclusively at Walmart."
• CPSC recall 13-051, dated November 28, 2012: "Trampolines Recalled by Sportspower Due to Injury Hazard; Sold Exclusively at Sports Authority."
• CPSC recall 13-107, dated January 30, 2013: "Sportspower Expands Trampoline Recall Due to Fall Hazard; Sold Exclusively at Walmart."

None of these notices is a court judgment. A recall does not decide that a trampoline injured a specific person, or that a manufacturer or retailer is legally responsible. Those questions belong to a civil case under state law, where they turn on evidence about one product and one accident.

For a parent or an injured person, the records matter in a narrower way: they help show whether a particular trampoline belongs to a recalled model, what hazard the agency described, and what remedy was offered. If your family owns one of these trampolines, the notices are the place where those three answers are written down, and the sections below take each in turn.

Where Your Trampoline Was Sold and Why That Matters for the Recall

If you bought a Sportspower trampoline, the notices tell you who stood behind it. The May 2012 notice names "Sportspower Limited, of Hong Kong, China," as the manufacturer and "Wal-Mart Stores Inc., of Bentonville, Ark." as the importer, and every notice states the trampolines were manufactured in China. The later notices call the firm Sportspower.

Each notice also tells you where and when a covered trampoline would have been bought, under the CPSC's "Sold Exclusively At" heading:

• Recall 12-172: "Walmart stores nationwide from February 2009 through February 2012 for about $275."
• Recall 13-051: "Sports Authority stores nationwide from April 2007 through May 2012 for about $540."
• Recall 13-107: "Walmart stores nationwide from February 2009 through March 2011 for about $300."

A store name and a sale window are only a starting point. The trampolines appear under different product names: the BouncePro 14' at Walmart and the Parkside at Sports Authority. What places a trampoline inside a recall is the identifying detail the CPSC lists, such as a model number, a UPC code or a printed plate. If you still have a receipt or order history showing the store and date, it can help confirm which notice, if any, applies to your trampoline. Being named in a notice is not a statement that any of these businesses caused an injury or broke a rule.

What Each Recall Notice Identified: Hazards and Affected Products

Here is what each CPSC page states, in its own terms.

Recall 12-172 (May 9, 2012) covers "Sportspower BouncePro 14' Trampolines with brown mesh netting." The page states that UPC codes 68706404210 and 68706404244 appear on the box, and that "Sportspower BouncePro 14" and "TR-14-63-A" are printed on a plate on the leg of the frame. Its hazard: "The netting surrounding these trampolines can break, allowing children to fall through the netting and be injured." About 92,000 units were covered, the remedy was replacement black netting, and the page reports Sportspower received "17 reports of the net breaking, resulting in 11 injuries."

Recall 13-051 (November 28, 2012) covers "Sportspower Parkside model TR-14FT-COM trampolines," 14 feet in diameter, sold with an enclosure net, with "Parkside" printed on the net. The page states: "The trampoline's metal legs can move out of position and puncture the jumping area, posing a risk of injury, including deep, penetrating puncture wounds, cuts and bruises to children and adults on the trampoline." About 23,400 units were covered, and the remedy was "a free repair kit." The page reports one incident of a leg separating and puncturing the jumping surface, and states, "No injuries have been reported."

Recall 13-107 (January 30, 2013) is described by the CPSC as "an expansion of the May 2012 recall of brown tetlon netting to now include black tetlon netting." ("Tetlon" is the notice's own term for the netting material; the notice does not define it further.) It covers BouncePro 14' trampolines with model TR-1686-TPR and UPC code 687064045552 or 687064042100 printed on the box. It describes the same netting hazard as the May 2012 notice. The page gives about 120,000 units, noting that 92,000 were recalled in May 2012, and the remedy was replacement enclosure netting.

The titles' "fall hazard" and "injury hazard" are the CPSC's summary labels. They describe a risk the agency identified for a model, not what happened in any one family's yard.

What a Recall Does and Does Not Decide About a Trampoline Injury

Federal law sets a reporting duty, not a liability rule. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064, a manufacturer, distributor or retailer that "obtains information which reasonably supports the conclusion" that a product contains a defect which could create a substantial product hazard, or "creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death," must generally inform the Commission. That duty does not apply when the firm knows the Commission has already been adequately informed. The same section lets the Commission, after an opportunity for a hearing, order public notice, repair, replacement or refund.

For a reader, the CPSC's regulation is useful because it shows how broad the word "defect" can be. 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4 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." In other words, a problem with a net, a leg or the instructions can all fall within that idea, though the regulation is a reporting guide, not a ruling on any injury.

Neither rule decides an injury case. A product liability claim is a civil claim, under state law, that a product was defective and that the defect caused an injury; the site explains it further on its page about defective trampoline product liability. It generally asks whether the product had a defect, whether that defect caused the injury, and what harm resulted. The elements and their names differ from state to state.

A recall notice can be part of that picture, but it proves none of those elements by itself. An incident report in a notice does not establish what caused a specific injury, and one notice about one model says nothing about every product a company sells. If your child was hurt on a trampoline later found in a recall, the questions that usually matter are whether that very trampoline was within the notice, what part failed, if any, and how the accident happened.

When a Fall or Structural Failure Leads to an Injury

The CPSC notices describe the injuries reported to the firm. The May 2012 and January 2013 notices list "broken bones, back and neck injuries and contusions." The November 2012 notice describes the risk of "deep, penetrating puncture wounds, cuts and bruises." These are the agency's descriptions of reports about particular models, not findings about how any specific person was hurt.

Falls from or through a trampoline enclosure can also involve the head. The site's page on trampoline head injuries covers that separately, and national figures are on the page about trampoline injury statistics.

The kind of injury matters to a legal claim mainly because it shapes damages, meaning the categories of loss the law may allow a person to recover if liability is proven. Depending on the state, those can include medical expenses, lost earnings and pain and suffering. Their extent depends on the facts and that state's law, and an injury on its own does not show that anyone was at fault or that a product was defective. If you were hurt, the medical records describing the injury and its treatment are usually what connect it to these categories.

Legal Issues That Can Arise When Someone Is Hurt on a Recalled Product

Two legal theories come up most often when someone is hurt on a home trampoline. The first is product liability, described above, which looks at the product and the businesses that made or sold it. The second is premises liability, the rule that a person who owns or controls property may owe visitors a duty of reasonable care. It generally asks whether there was a duty, whether it was breached, and whether the breach caused the injury and damages. Who owes what to a guest, a neighbor's child or a family member is decided by state law, and the rules differ.

Accidents at a commercial venue raise different questions, including signed releases, which the site covers on its page about trampoline park waivers.

Three more rules shape these cases, and all vary by state. A statute of limitations is the deadline for filing a lawsuit; the length, when it starts to run, and exceptions such as those for minors are set by each state. Under comparative fault, a person's recovery may be reduced by their own share of fault, while a few states follow stricter contributory fault rules. Damages rules, including any for wrongful death claims brought by a family after a death, also differ. One state's example appears on the site's page on Texas trampoline accident law.

A person in this position may weigh which trampoline was involved, who owned it, where the injury happened and which state's law applies. Sorting out how those facts fit together is the kind of thing a conversation with our attorney can cover; you can request a case evaluation when that would help.

Records That Can Show Whether a Recall Applies to Your Trampoline

Because the CPSC notices identify recalled trampolines by details printed on the product and its box, records showing those details carry weight. Injured people and families often keep or gather:

• Medical records documenting the injury, its diagnosis and its treatment.
• Photos and video of the trampoline, the netting, the frame and the scene, showing the product's condition after the accident.
• The trampoline itself, with its model number, frame plate, tags and labels, which connect it to a specific notice.
• The receipt, order history or other purchase record, showing the store and the date of sale.
• Any incident report or police report that was made.
• The names and contact details of anyone who saw the accident.
• A copy of the matching CPSC recall notice, and any record of a replacement net or repair kit received.

Each speaks to a different question. The model details and purchase record go to whether a notice applies at all; the product and photos go to what failed, if anything; the medical records go to the injury itself. If a trampoline is discarded or repaired before its plate and netting are recorded, the link to a notice can be harder to show. No single record answers every question, and an attorney can help sort out how the ones you have fit the facts of the accident.