Products Liability-Strict Liability
Elements
- the person being sued is a merchant
- merchants have a strict duty to supply safe goods
- merchant =one who routinely deals in the product sold including any merchant in the stream of commerce - Product is defective
-defect must make product unreasonably dangerous - product is unaltered since leaving the person being sued’ control
- person suing used the product in a forseeable manner -
person suing misue of the product can also be forseeable
who can sue
- forseeable users and bystanders
- buyers as well as their guests, employees, family, etc
Damages
person suing can recover for physical injury or property damage but not solely for economic losses
Types of Product Defects
Negligence, Warranty, Defective Product
Defective Product-breaks,
Manufacturing Defect
Design Defect
Negligence-someone didnt do what they were supposed to do
Inadequate Warning- Manufacture failed to adequately warn of a non-obvious risk associated with the products use
- manufacture also has a duty to wanna foreseeable dangerous for miss use of the product
- The person is doing the show the product has risk that
1. cannot be eliminated by redesign
2. consumers would not ordinarily notice this risk
Unavoidably unsafe products if product cannot be made safe for is ordinary use examples given chainsaw firearms manufacturer must give
- proper instructions for use and
- adequate warnings of known dangers
The person being sued is not liable for risk that we’re on for seeable at the time the product was marketed
Products liability Negligence theory
The person suing may establish liability for a product defect under standard negligence theory
note product defect is almost always easier to establish under strict liability theory
Elements
- duty of care each margin in the stream of commerce is a duty to all foreseeable product users and bystanders
- breach of duty- person being sued’s negligence leads to the supplying of a defective product
- retailers and wholesalers satisfied do care by a cursory inspection of the product this makes it difficult to hold him negligent for product defects. - causation the person Must show actual and proximate cause cause
