Product Tag: Contracts

Federal Court Civil Complaint, including claims for Strict Liability, Product Liability-Failure to Warn, Negligence, Breach of Warranty- Express and Implied, Fraud, Fraudulent Concealment, and Negligent Representation.

Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause.

Product Defects: Responsible Parties

For product liability to arise, at some point the product must have been sold in the marketplace. Historically, a contractual relationship, known as “privity of contract,” had to exist between the person injured by a product and the supplier of the product in order for the injured person to recover. In most states today, however, that requirement no longer exists, and the injured person does not have to be the purchaser of the product in order to recover. Any person who foreseeably could have been injured by a defective product can recover for his or her injuries, as long as the product was sold to someone.

Liability for a product defect could rest with any party in the product’s chain of distribution, such as:

-The product manufacturer;
-A manufacturer of component parts;
-A party that assembles or installs the product;
-The wholesaler; and
-The retail store that sold the product to the consumer.