Product Liability

AuthorJeffrey Wilson
Pages1375-1380

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Background

A plaintiff in a products liability case asserts that the manufacturer of a product should be liable for personal injury or property damage that results from a defect in a product or from false representations made by the manufacturer of the product. A defendant often tries to disprove the plaintiff's case by showing that the product was not defective or that the plaintiff's misuse of the product was what caused harm to the plaintiff.

Products liability law consists of a mixture of tort law and contract law. Aspects of this area of law related to tort include strict liability, negligence, and deceit. Aspects that relate to contract law relate mostly to the laws governing warranties. Because this area of law is really hybrid in nature, a plaintiff may assert a number of possible claims, such as negligence, breach of implied warranty of fitness, breach of express warranty, or fraud.

The basis for products liability law developed over several centuries. English courts developed the doctrine of caveat emptor, meaning "let the buyer beware." Under this doctrine, a buyer was expected to protect himself against both obvious and hidden defects in a product and could not recover from the manufacturer for damages caused by these defects. Over time, however, English courts began to recognize a rule that a seller implied warrants that a product does not contain a hidden defect. On the other hand, American courts continued to employ the caveat emptor rule for most of the nineteenth century.

When courts in the United States began to impose implied warranties of merchantability in the late 1800s, the rule required that the plaintiff have privity of contract with the defendant. This meant that the buyer must have purchased a product directly from the manufacturer in order to recover from the manufacturer. During that time, manufacturers had begun to rely more heavily on retailers to sell products. Since many buyers did not actually purchase the products directly from the manufacturers, though, those buyers could not recover for breach of implied warranty from the manufacturers due to a lack of privity of contract.

Courts opened the doors to modern products liability cases in the 1950s and 1960s by allowing remote plaintiffs to recover against the manufacturers

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of defective products. The American Law Institute (ALI) included rules pertaining to products liability in the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which was official promulgated in 1965. Since the 1960s, the law of products liability has continued to expand and develop. The ALI recognized this development by approving the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability, in 1998.

Basis for Liability

A plaintiff may rely on one or more of several theories upon which to base his or her argument for recovery in a products liability case. The primary theories for recovery include the following: negligence, tortious misrepresentation, breach of warranty, and strict liability in tort.

Negligence

The tort of negligence remains a central part of the law of products liability. In order to recover under a theory of negligence, a plaintiff must prove five basic elements, including the following: (1) the manufacturer owed a duty to the plaintiff; (2) the manufacturer breached a duty to the plaintiff; (3) the breach of duty was the actual cause of the plaintiff's injury; (4) the breach of duty was also the proximate cause of the injury; and (5) the plaintiff suffered actual damages as a result of the negligent act.

In a products liability case, the law requires that a manufacturer exercise a standard of care that is reasonable for those who are experts in manufacturing similar products. However, even if a plaintiff can prove that a manufacturer has failed to exercise the proper standard of care, the plaintiff cannot recover without proving two aspects of causation. The plaintiff must first show that but for the manufacturer's negligence, the plaintiff's would not have been injured. The plaintiff must also show that the defendant could have foreseen the risks and uses of the product at the time of manufacturing.

Tortious Misrepresentation

A claim in a products liability suit may be based on false or misleading information that is conveyed by the manufacturer of a product. A person who relies on the information conveyed by the seller and who is harmed by such reliance may recover for the mis-representation. This basis for recovery does not depend on a defect in the product, but rather depends on the false communication.

Tortious misrepresentation may appear in one of three basic forms. First, a person may commit fraudulent misrepresentation, or deceit, in which the person knows that a statement is false and intends to mislead the plaintiff by making the statement. Second, a person may commit negligent misrepresentation, where the person was negligent in ascertaining whether a statement was true. Third, some jurisdictions allow for strict liability in instances where a manufacturer makes a public statement about the safety of a product.

Warranty

A warranty is a type of guarantee that a seller gives regarding the quality of a product. A warranty may be express, meaning that the seller makes certain representations regarding the quality of a product. If the product's quality is less than the representation, the seller could be liable for breach of express warranty. Some warranties may also be implied due to the nature of the sale.

The Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.), which has been adopted in part by every state, provides the basis for warranties in the United States. The U.C.C. recognizes express warranties and two types of implied warranties: the implied warranty of merchantability and the implied warranty of fitness for a...

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