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Product liability is used to describe the liability of a supplier of a product who sells, distributes or produces a product that causes harm to its end user. A supplier can be the actual manufacturer of the dangerous product, the wholesaler of the dangerous product, or distributor of the dangerous product. The supplier must be in the business of selling or distributing that particular type of product. In addition, the product must in fact reach the end user in the same condition in which it was originally sold. The end user does not need to be the actual purchaser of the product itself.
Generally, there must be: a) an unreasonably dangerous product; b) the defect in the unreasonably dangerous product caused the injury or harm.
In most states, courts have determined that a defective product is one that has a defective condition that is unreasonably dangerous to the public or its users. There are two types of defects:
1) Manufacturing Defect: During the manufacturing process or production, a product is altered or different from the other products in production and turns out to be more dangerous than the other products leading to cause an unreasonable defect. Defective foods or recalled foods are typically treated as a manufacturing defect.
2) Design Defect: During manufacturing or production, all of the products made are identical and present a dangerous defect. Since the design was poor and resulted in the unreasonably dangerous product, the entire design was defective as well as the entire line of products.
3) Failure to Warn: Under products liability, strict liability may be applied when a product is unreasonably dangerous and the supplier, manufacturer or retailer fails to warn of the dangers. Failure to warn may exist even if there were no defect at all.
Products liability cases are typically analyzed under the strict liability rules where the defendant is liable under a no fault analysis. This often means that it is unnecessary to show liability when a product falls below the standards imposed by an implied warranty of the products use. The supplier may be required to warn of the dangers which would be reasonably known at the time of the sale of the product.
Posted by Legal Staff
