Product Liability Law: Some Legal Background

If you have sustained an injury because of a manufacturing defect, design defect, or failure to warn, you may have grounds for a product liability claim.

This article shares the history and development of product liability law. You can also talk to a product liability attorney to learn how modern laws speak to your situation. Today’s product liability statutes apply to several types of products, including:

• Pharmaceuticals and medical devices
• Automobiles
• Electronics
• Household appliances
• Food and beverages

The Origin of Product Liability Law

When courts in the United States began to impose implied warranties of merchantability in the late 1800s, the rule required that the plaintiff have privity of contract with the defendant. Privity of contract means that only parties who are directly involved in a contract can sue or be sued.

In the context of product liability, privity of contract means that the buyer must have purchased a product directly from the manufacturer (not a distributor or retailer) to recover from the manufacturer.

During that time, manufacturers began to rely more heavily on retailers to sell products. Since many buyers did not actually purchase the products directly from the manufacturers, they could not recover for breach of implied warranty claims from the manufacturers due to a lack of privity of contract.

Courts opened the doors to modern product liability cases in the 1950s and 1960s by allowing remote plaintiffs to recover against the manufacturers of defective products. The American Law Institute (ALI) included rules regarding product liability in the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which was officially put into effect in 1965.

Since the 1960s, the law of products liability has continued to expand and develop. The ALI recognized this development by approving the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability, in 1998.

The Strict Liability Revolution

Another major step in product liability law was the incorporation of strict liability. Most areas of law are deeply concerned with fault—the idea that a party should be liable only if its wrongdoing caused an injury.

What’s the difference between strict product liability, negligence, and contract law? Let’s define each one:

• Negligence concerns the defendant’s conduct
• Contract law concerns a breach of contract
• Strict liability is an exception, making a party is liable for damages regardless of whether its conduct contributed to the injury

Many legal commentators refer to strict product liability as a “policy decision.”This basically means it leads to desirable outcomes.

Strict product liability is premised on the idea that manufacturers are best positioned to ensure their products are safe for consumers. Making it easier for injured consumers to sue encourages manufacturers to make safer products in order to avoid lawsuits.

The rise of strict product liability also tends to shifts the cost of product-related injuries towards manufacturers and away from consumers. The net effect is to improve overall product safety and more fully compensate injured consumers.

History of Product Liability State Laws

California became the first state to adopt strict products liability in 1963. Other state legislatures followed suit. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court incorporated strict product liability into admiralty law. Today, most states recognize some version of strict products liability.

When filing a product liability lawsuit, plaintiffs routinely assert strict liability claims along with other tort claims and contract claims.

What Does Product Liability Have To Do With Tort and Contract Law?

Products liability law consists of a mixture of tort law and contract law. Legal theories related to tort include:

• Strict liability
• Negligence
• Deceit

Legal theories relating to contract law primarily concern warranty laws. Because this area of law is hybrid in nature, a plaintiff may assert a number of possible claims, including:

• Negligence
• Breach of warranty (both implied warranty of fitness and express warranty)
• Fraud

The basis for product liability law developed over several centuries. English courts developed the doctrine of caveat emptor, meaning”let the buyer beware.”Under this doctrine, a buyer was expected to protect himself against both obvious and hidden defects in a product and could not recover from the manufacturer for damages caused by these defects.

Over time, English courts began to recognize a rule that a seller implicitly warrants that a product does not contain a hidden defect. Change across the ocean was slower to take effect, as courts in America continued to employ the caveat emptor rule for most of the nineteenth century.

Product Liability: Early Cases

Early product liability cases helped shape today’s law. Certain legislative reforms also progressed into the product liability laws we use today.

Going back to the concept of privity, courts generally required a direct contractual relationship between the injured party and the manufacturer. This made it difficult for consumers to recover damages for defective products.

One of the earliest exceptions to this rule came in Winterbottom v. Wright (1842), an English common law case. In this case, the court denied recovery to a coach driver injured by a defective coach, reinforcing the privity requirement. This case laid the groundwork for future challenges to the laws at the time.

In MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. (1916), the Court of Appeals of New York ruled that a manufacturer could be held liable for negligence even without direct contractual ties to the injured party. This case marked a turning point in product liability law. It established that manufacturers owe a duty of care to the end users of their products. It led to broader consumer protections and paved the way for modern laws regarding negligence, breach of warranty, and strict liability.

In 1963, the California Supreme Court’s decision in Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc. firmly established the principle of strict liability in tort. The court held that a manufacturer could be liable for injuries caused by a defective product, regardless of whether the injured party had purchased the product directly.

This case marked a shift towards a focus on consumer safety, where manufacturers can be held accountable simply for placing defective products in the marketplace.

Contact an Attorney for a Product Liability Case Assessment

Product liability laws were developed to protect consumers from being injured by poorly designed or manufactured products. If you were injured by a product defect, an attorney can determine if you have a viable claim against the seller or manufacturer.

To learn more about the strength of your claim, contact a personal injury lawyer near you. An attorney familiar with your jurisdiction’s laws can assess your situation and advise on the next best steps.