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📝 Page Status: Draft — sourced but not yet reviewed

  • Status: draft
  • Sources: 3
  • Relationships: 5
  • Research debt items: 4

Raine v. OpenAI, Inc.

Summary

Raine v. OpenAI, Inc., No. CGC-25-628528 (Cal. Super. Ct., S.F. Cnty.), is a pending wrongful-death and product-liability action filed August 26, 2025, by Matthew and Maria Raine over the death of their 16-year-old son Adam. The original complaint names OpenAI entities and Samuel Altman and pleads design-defect, failure-to-warn, UCL, wrongful-death, and survival theories. The case was later coordinated into In re ChatGPT Product Liability Cases. The sources reviewed here contain no merits ruling.

Verified Facts

  • On August 26, 2025, Matthew and Maria Raine, individually and as successors-in-interest to decedent Adam Raine, filed a San Francisco Superior Court complaint against OpenAI, Inc., OpenAI OpCo, LLC, OpenAI Holdings, LLC, Samuel Altman, and unnamed employees and investors.1
  • Plaintiffs allege that Adam Raine, then 16 and a California resident, began using ChatGPT in September 2024 and died by suicide on April 11, 2025.1
  • The complaint alleges that GPT-4o was designed with persistent memory, anthropomorphic mannerisms, and sycophantic engagement that fostered dependency and that OpenAI launched those features despite internal safety objections.1
  • The complaint pleads seven causes of action: (1) strict product liability — design defect; (2) strict product liability — failure to warn; (3) negligence — design defect; (4) negligence — failure to warn; (5) violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law; (6) wrongful death; and (7) a survival action.1
  • Florida’s later Attorney General complaint cites this action as Raine v. OpenAI, No. CGC-25-628528 (Cal. Super. Ct. Aug. 26, 2025).2
  • Counsel in the California ChatGPT product-liability cluster reported that the Judicial Council coordinated those actions, including GPT-4o design claims of the kind pleaded here, as JCCP No. 5431 on February 3, 2026.3

Historical Context

Raine is the first widely filed U.S. wrongful-death suit against OpenAI over an alleged chatbot-related suicide. It supplied the pleading template later recycled across the California coordination and cited by Florida’s Attorney General. Garcia had already tested companion-chatbot product liability in federal court; Raine brought the same cluster of theories against a general-purpose model and its CEO.

Jurisdiction: California Superior Court, later coordinated in San Francisco. Authority level: complaint and coordination reporting. No court in the sources reviewed here has decided causation, whether ChatGPT is a product, or whether the First Amendment or Section 230 bars the claims.13

Naming Altman individually is a pleading choice also used in later ChatGPT harm suits. Treat it as an allegation of personal participation in design and launch decisions, not a finding of personal liability.

This page does not state that any defendant is liable.

Relationships

  • CASE-RAINE-V-OPENAI cites SRC-RAINE-V-OPENAI-COMPLAINT.
  • CASE-RAINE-V-OPENAI related_to CASE-IN-RE-CHATGPT-PRODUCT-LIABILITY.
  • CASE-RAINE-V-OPENAI related_to TOPIC-AI-HARM-LITIGATION.
  • CASE-RAINE-V-OPENAI related_to TOPIC-AI-LITIGATION.
  • CASE-RAINE-V-OPENAI related_to CASE-GARCIA-V-CHARACTER-TECHNOLOGIES.

Sources

  1. SRC-RAINE-V-OPENAI-COMPLAINT: Original complaint (Aug. 26, 2025).
  2. SRC-FLORIDA-V-OPENAI-COMPLAINT: Florida AG complaint citing the Raine docket.
  3. SRC-TJLP-JCCP-5431-2026: Tech Justice JCCP update (Feb. 3, 2026).

Research Debt

  • Replace the Courthouse News PDF with a court-hosted or RECAP original.
  • Add the October 2025 amended complaint and OpenAI’s answer from the San Francisco docket.
  • Add the signed JCCP coordination order and confirm Raine’s inclusion by caption.
  • Verify post-coordination case-management orders before stating a trial date or settlement.

Document metadata

  • Filing date: 2025-08-26
  • Last verified: 2026-09-03

  1. SRC-RAINE-V-OPENAI-COMPLAINT — Original complaint (Aug. 26, 2025). Plaintiff allegations; this page does not reproduce alleged chatbot transcripts or methods of harm. ↩↩↩↩↩

  2. SRC-FLORIDA-V-OPENAI-COMPLAINT — Florida AG complaint (June 1, 2026), citing the Raine docket number. ↩

  3. SRC-TJLP-JCCP-5431-2026 — Counsel update (Feb. 3, 2026). Self-reported; corroborate with the signed coordination order. ↩↩