Wisconsin Court of Appeals rules danger to bystander is insufficient.

• Date: 05 May 2008

Byline: David Ziemer

In a tragic accident, Jonathon Horst, 2 years old at the time, was severely injured when his father backed up a John Deere lawnmower over him. The blades of the lawn tractor were operating while the vehicle was in reverse.

The Horsts sued Deere & Company, claiming negligence and strict liability, given that the blades could be engaged while driving backward.

The family lost when the jury instructions did not allow them to consider the danger posed to a bystander.

In a strict product liability action, the standard for liability is whether the product is unreasonably dangerous to the ordinary user or consumer.

If it is not, then there can be no strict liability, even if it is unreasonably dangerous to a bystander.

At trial, the circuit court gave the standard jury instructed for strict product liability, WIS JI -- Civil 3260.

The instruction states that the manufacturer of a product is strictly liable if the product is unreasonably dangerous to the ordinary user or consumer.

The Horsts requested that the instruction be amended to include bystanders, as...