Products Liability
Defenses to SPL:
1. Assumption of Risk
2. Unforeseeable misuse
3. Contributory Negligence
4. Open and Obvious Danger
SL for Animals:
Wild Animals --> SL
Domesticated Animals --> Negligence
Domesticated Animals with known vicious propensities --> Negligence per se or SL
Contributory Negligence
1. P negligent towards own safety
2. P's negligence is a substantial factor in his own harm
Old: all or nothing rule New: Comparative Fault
Exceptions to No Duty Rule (Failure to Aid)
1. Actor steps in to assist but unreasonably stops or acts negligently
2. Creation of dangerous condition
3. D's actions harmed another and they are helpless and in danger of further harm
4. Interference with another's rescue attempt
You're doing amazing sweetie. Drop a random piece of torts knowledge.
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Strict Products Liability under §402A
1. D is in business of sselling products for use or consumption
2. Product either contains:
Manufacturing defect
Design Defect or
Inadequate Warning
3. Resulting in:
Physical harm to user or consumer or foreseeable bystander or
Property damage
Abnormally Dangerous Activities
1. One who carries on an ADA is subject to liability to person, land, chattels of another
Restatement Factors:
High Degree of risk of some harm to person, land, or chattels of another
Inability to Eliminate risk by exercise of reasonable care
Likelihood that the resulting harm will be great
Extent to which Value of community > dangerous activity
Inappropriateness of activity to place where it is carried on
Extent to which activity is not a common usage
Express v Implied Assumption of Risk
Express: P expressly agrees to known risks of activity.
Challenges: Procedural (RIKO) and Substantive (GPASCD)
Implied:
1. P subjectively knows, appreciates, and understands risk of harm created by D's conduct, and
2. P voluntarily subjects self to risk, implied through conduct
Gratuitous Undertakings
2. P's reasonable relies on the performance
D has a duty to exercise reasonable care + duty to provide adequate warning and notice to public before stopping practice
Economic Loss Rule
P cannot recover for purely economic loss.
Must be parasitic to personal injury or property damage.
Malfunction Theory
1. Evidence of malfunction
2. No abnormal use
3. Elimination of other causes of malfunction
proves manufacturing defect
Common ADA categories
Storage of liquified manure
Pilie driving
Blasting
Storage of Explosives
Fireworks Displays
Rocket Testing
Fumigation
Crop Dusting
Transportation of Flammable/Explosive Materials
Storage of gasoline
Different Types of Vicarious Liability
1. Employer-Employee (Respondeat Superior)
2. Principal's liability for torts of agent
Independent Contractor Exceptions
1. Actual Authority
2. Apparent Authority
3. Implied authority
4. Non-delegability doctrine
5. Inherently dangerous work
Types of damages
1. Nominal damages
2. Compensatory
3. Punitive
2 Alternative Tests for Design Defect
Consumer Expectations Test: Product is defective if it fails to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used in foreseeable manner.
Risk Utility Test: Danger inherent in Design > Benefit of product
Barker Factors: Gravity of danger posed by challenged design
Likelihood that such danger would occur
Mechanical Feasibility of safer alternative design
Financial cost of improved design
Adverse consequences to product + consumer from alternativ design
Policy arguments for SL
1. Person who occasioned the damage should pay for losses caused
2. As between two innocents, the one who caused harm should pay
3. Loss Spreading ; must internalize losses as cost of doing business
4. Person who benefits from activity should bear the loss
5. loss follows benefit
Duties owed by owners/occupiers to trespasser, licensee, and invitee
Invitee- duty of ordinary care (duty to make premises safe)
Licensee- duty to warn licensee of known dangers or make condition safe
Trespasser- no duty to warn of dangers unless:
-Owner knows of specific danger + knows trespasser is about to encounter it
-owes a duty to known trespasser to avoid injuring in active operations
-Duty to warn of hidden dangers adjacent to public walkway
Special Relationships
1. Common Carrier and passengers
2. Business owners and invitees (Totality of Circumstances)
3. Innkeepers and guests
4. Custodial settings
5. Common Social Enterprise
6. Employer and Employee
7. Physician - patient (duty to warn)
Compensatory damages
1. Medical expenses
2. Economic Damages
3. Pain and suffering
4. Hedonic damages
5. Property loss
Inadequate Warning Questions:
1. When? When M knows or should've known of a risk of harm to a substantial number of the population likely to encounter product
2. Whom? Persons who foreseeably will be injured or endangered by use or exposure to the product
3. Adequate? Must give written warning conveying reasonable notice of nature, gravity and likelihood of knowable side effects/ risks
4. Inadequate warning is but for cause of P's injuries
Rylands v Fletcher Rule
If person brings onto their property something that, if it escapes, is likely to do mischief to neighbor's property, person is strictly liable if the thing escapes and does harm.
Non-Delegable Duty
1. Safety regulation and statutes
2. Responsibility to premises
3. Ownership of dangerous instrumentalities
4. ***Public Policy
NIED
1. D acted neglgiently
2. P within zone of danger of D's negligence
3. P suffered emotional distress from D's conduct
4. Emotional distress led to physical consequences
Bystander NIED
1. P present at scene of accident
2. Shock resulted from direct emotional impact upon P from sensory + contemporaneous observance of serious injuty accident
3. P and victim are closely related