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Product Liability

Overview

Products liability laws refer to the liability of anyone with a responsibility for a product from the supplier or manufacturer to the seller -- if that product causes damage due to defect. Product liability law has grown to include intangibles (gas), naturals (pets), real estate (house), and writings (navigational charts). Liability claims can be based on negligence, strict liability, or breach of warranty of fitness. The United States Department of Commerce has promulgated a Model Uniform Products Liability Act (MUPLA) for voluntary use by the states. There is no federal products liability law.

Examples of product liabilities involve defective products such as gas tanks, tire defects, air bag injuries, toxic chemicals, some environmental pollution as well as products that do not live up to their respective guarantees or warranties. A product is legally considered defective if it was made poorly or sold with flaws. A product may fulfill its purpose as expected but an injury may occur in normal use. A product may also be safe if used carefully, but it may be considered defective if the manufacturer 's information on how to use it is unclear, incomplete or incorrect. This misrepresentation concerning the product, if resulting in an injury, may entitle the plaintiff to damages.

 

Tainted Peanut Butter

In August of 2006, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about Peter Pan
Peanut Butter and Wal-Mart’s own Great value brand. Certain jars, jars marked with
product code located on the lid that starts with the number “2111,” were tainted with
Salmonella serotype Tennessee, a bacterium that causes food-borne illness. All Peter Pan
Peanut Butter in the United States is produced in this manufacturing plant in Georgia.
The recall covers all peanut butter produced by the plant since May 2006. While this
warning came just in time for many consumers; for at least 288 people in 39 states it
came too late.

Although the cause of the salmonella outbreak is not yet known this situation is not
entirely without precedent. In 1991 there was a similar outbreak of salmonella
originating in contaminated peanut butter in Australia where the contamination was blamed
animal feces found in the manufacturing plant.

Salmonella sickens about 38,000 people a year in the U.S. and kills about 600. It can
cause diarrhea, fever, dehydration, abdominal pain and vomiting. Elderly people,
infants, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness.

 

Consumer Products Liability

Consumer products liability refers to the liability of any or all parties along the chain of manufacture of any product for damage caused by that product. This includes the manufacturer of component parts (at the top of the chain), an assembling manufacturer, the wholesaler, and the retail store owner (at the bottom of the chain). Products containing inherent defects that cause harm to a consumer of the product, or someone to whom the product was loaned, given, etc., are the subjects of products liability suits. While products are generally thought of as tangible personal property, products liability has stretched that definition to include intangibles (gas), naturals (pets), real estate (house), and writings (navigational charts).

   

Defective Industrial Products

If the defect is a manufacturing defect, it may be easier to establish the problem, since the product does not meet the manufacturer's own design or specifications. Comparison of the defectively made product to others made according to the same specifications will often satisfy the legal proof requirements. If you believe that a product with a manufacturing defect may have caused you injury, you should be aware that it may be essential to keep whatever is left of the defective product, even if it is in pieces, to prove the manufacturing defect.

Consumer products may also be defective due to a defect in the basic design, or where the design does not include necessary safety devices to reduce risk of injury from a danger inherent in the product. In these “design defect” cases, the product may have performed exactly as it was designed to, yet caused injury. Legal proof centers on the existence of a feasible alternative design that would accomplish the same objective while lowering or eliminating the risk of injury.

   

Disclaimer

Effective 2010, Mr. Feldman is semi-retired and on inactive status, but is consulting or referring many matters to experienced counsel with which he has maintained longstanding relationships.

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