Warranties and Product Liability

1
Warranties and Product Liability

• Express Warranties
• Written or Oral
• Statements of Opinion or Valueusually not a
  warranty
• Martin Rispens v. Hall Farms
• Advertising Puffery?
• Scheuler v. Aamco Transmissions
• Klages v. General Ordinance Equiptment

2
Warranties

• Descriptions Warranty
• Singer v. EI du Pont
• ModelsWarranty
• Disclaiming Express Warranty obvious, bold,
  easy to read
• As is Sales no warranty

3
Warranties

• Statement must be basis of bargain
• P must actually rely
• Reliance must be justifiable
• In re GM Brake Product Liability Litigation
• Daughtery v. Ashe

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Implied Warranties

• Implied Warranty of Merchantability
• Sale of Goods
• Seller is Merchant
• Nature of Warranty
• Average or medium grade
• Pass w/o objection in the marketplace
• Adequately packaged and labeled
• Conforms to promises made on labeling

5
Implied Warranties

• Goodman v. Wenco Foods
• Webster v. Blue Ship Tea Room
• Dennis v. Allison

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Implied Warranties

• Imp. Warranty of Fitness for A Particular Purpose
• Seller has knowledge of Buyers Purpose
• Seller aware of Buyers reliance on Sellers
  judgment
• Actual Reliance on Sellers judgment

7
Implied Warranties

• Dempsey v. Rosenthal
• Catania v. Brown
• Disclaimer strictly construed against Seller

8
Strict Liability

• 402A Restatement of Torts
• Merchant
• Neveaux v. Park Place Hospital
• Sale of a Product
• Physical Harm
• Reaches User w/o Substantial Change
• Porchia v. Design Equipment

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Elements of Strict Liability

• Defect in Product
• Manufacturing
• Design (will discuss later)
• Failure to Warn
• Necessity of Warning
• Brown v. Sears Roebuck
• Daniel v. Ben E. Keith

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Failure to Warn

• Sufficiency of Warning
• Cooley v. Carter-Wallace
• Martin v. Bengue, Inc.
• Warning to Replace Safe Design?
• Hansen v. Sunnyside Products
• Uniroyal v. Martinez

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Design Defect

• Unreasonably Dangerous beyond Expectation of
  normal consumer
• Utility of product vs. magnitude of risk
• Reasonable available safe alternative
• Ability to make safe w/o impairing usefulness
• Users relative awareness of risk
• Expectations of Ordinary consumer

12
Design Defect

• Hernandez v. Tokai Corp
• Air Bag cases
• Design Defect must be proximate cause of Ps
  injury

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Post Sale Liability

• Subsequent Discoveries
• Duty to Repair
• Duty to Warn
• Perkins v. Emerson Electric
• Noel v. United Aircraft Co.
• Duty to Recall
• Sayles v. Vancom, Inc.
• Conduct of Recall
• Recall Letter as Evidence of Defect?

14
Liability Among Channel Members

• Manufacturer primarily liable
• Distributor/Wholesaler
• Santarelli v. BP America
• Retailer
• Welkener v. Kirkwood Drug Stores
• Gonzales v. Carmenita Ford

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Channel Member Liability cont

• Component Manufacturer
• Foreseeability of Use
• Warning
• Expertise of intermediary/purchaser
• Use of a Trademark
• Kealoha v. DuPont

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Channel Member Liability cont

• Licensor
• Torres v. Goodyear
• Burkert v. Petro Plus
• Carter v. Joseph Bancroft and Sons

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Defenses

• Unavoidably Unsafe
• Assumption of Risk
• Awareness of risk
• Appreciation of nature of risk
• Voluntarily Assumed
• Sargia v. Skil Corp
• Mercurio v. Nissan Motor
• Seat Belt Defense
• Texas Law

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Defenses

• Obviousness of Hazard
• Reasonable Person
• Maneely v. GM
• Knowledgeable Purchaser Doctrine
• Smith v. Walter Best, Inc.

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Defenses

• User Misconduct
• Used in an Unintended Manner
• Not Reasonably Foreseeable to D
• Larue v. National Union Electric
• Daniell v. Ford
• Simple Carelessness negligently failing to
  discover or guard against the defect
• Keen v. Ashot
• GM v. Sanchez