PRODUCT LIABILITY

Under California law, strict products liability has been invoked for three types of product defects:

• Manufacturing defects: Manufacturing defects are those that occur in the manufacturing process and usually involve poor-quality materials or shoddy workmanship
• Design defects: The product design is inherently dangerous or useless (and hence defective) no matter how carefully manufactured
• Marketing defects: Failure-to-warn defects arise in products that carry inherent non-obvious dangers which could be mitigated through adequate warnings to the user. These dangers must be present regardless of how well the product is manufactured and designed for its intended purpose

It has been also stated that: “Under the product liability law of California, injury to the plaintiff from a defective product, in the form of either personal injury or property damage, is an essential element of a cause of action. The plaintiff must show that the product was in a defective condition, and must prove that the defective product supplied by the defendant was a substantial factor in bringing about his or her injury.”

Perhaps a good example of a products liability comes from one of the cases handled by my law firm. A woman went out to eat at a well-known restaurant that was part of a chain of restaurants. She sat on a chair at her table which collapsed. It had been built defectively. We sued the manufacturer of the chair and got her several hundred thousand dollars.