Chapter 13STRICT LIABILITY & PRODUCT LIABILITYI. Strict Liabilitya. Strict Liability: when a person is legally liable for damages caused by his acts or omissions regardless of fault; applies to:b. Abnormally dangerous activities: those that involve high risk of serious harm to persons/property that cannot be completely guarded againsti. Blastingii. Storing explosives/hazardous materialc. Keeping wild animalsd. Product Liability: liability of manufacturers and sellers for harmful or defective products; based on 2 factorsi. Manufacturer can better bear the cost of injury by increasing the price of goodsii. Manufacturer is making a profit from its activities, so should bear the cost of injury as an operating expenseII. Product Liabilitya. Product Liability: those who make, sell or lease goods can be held liable for physical harm/property damage caused by the goods to a consumer, user or bystanderb. Based on Negligence: Manufacturer must exercise due care ini. Design ii. Material selectioniii. Production processiv. Testing and assembling the productv. Inspection of any purchased component parts vi. Placement of warning labelc. No requirement that person injured by a product be the buyer or a third party beneficiaryd. Based on Misrepresentation: if a user/consumer is injured by a product due to the manufacturer/seller’s fraud (ex. Intention mislabeling of a package)III. Strict Product Liabilitya. Strict Product Liability the result of public policy that consumers should be protected against unsafe productsb. Irrelevant whether act was intentional or whether there was a failure to exercise due carec. In an action for strict liability, liability can be nearly unlimited if:i. Product was in defective condition when defendant sold it1. Manufacturing defects: the product departs from its intended design resulting in a product that is flawed, damaged or incorrectly assembled2. Design defect: the product is made in conformity with the design, but the design was faulty; plaintiff claiming design defect must prove:a. A reasonable alternative design was availableb. The defendant’s failure to adopt the alternative design made the product unsafe3. Inadequate warning also renders product defective: when foreseeable risks of harm could have been reduced/avoided if there had been reasonable instructions or warningsa. Johnson v. Medtronic, Inc.b. Seller must warn about foreseeable misusesc. There is no duty to warn about obvious risksii. Defendant is normally engaged in business or selling/distributing the productiii. Product is unreasonably dangerous to user/consumer because of defective stateiv. Plaintiff must incur physical harm to self or property by use or consumption of productv. Defective condition is proximate cause of injuryvi. Product was not substantially changed from time it was sold to the time the injury was sustainedd. To prove a defective condition, the plaintiff must show that the product was defective when it left the seller’s hands and that the defective condition made the product unreasonably dangerousi. The product was dangerous beyond the expectations of the ordinary consumer; orii. A less dangerous alternative was economically feasible for the manufacturer, but the manufacturer failed to produce ite. Market Share Liability: a plaintiff may attempt to establish a case against agroup of product manufacturers for an injury caused by a product, even when the plaintiff does not know from which defendant the product originatedf. Strict Product Liability also applies to injured bystanders and suppliers of component partsIV. Defenses to Product Liabilitya. Preemption: government regulations preempt claims for product liability b. Assumption of risk: defendant must show thati. Plaintiff knew of and appreciated risk created by product defectii. Plaintiff voluntarily assumed riskc. Product misuse; except in situations where a particular misuse is reasonably foreseeabled. Comparative Fault: a defendant may be able to limit some or all liability ifit can show that the plaintiff’s misuse of the product contributed to the injuriese. Commonly Known Dangers f. Knowledgeable Userg. Statutes of