Products Liability Cases.
Manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are responsible for injuries their products cause.
Theories of liability
In the United States, the claims most commonly associated with product liability are negligence, strict liability, breach of warranty, and various consumer protection claims.
Breach of warranty
Warranties are statements by a manufacturer or seller regaring a product during a commercial transaction. There are 3 types of Breach of warranty-based product liability cases, 1) Breach of an express warranty, 2) Breach of an implied warranty of merchantability, and 3) Breach of an implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.
Express warranty claims focus on express statements by the manufacturer or the seller concerning the product (e.g., "This chainsaw is useful to cut turkeys").
The various implied warranties cover those expectations common to all products (e.g., that a tool is not unreasonably dangerous when used for its proper purpose), unless specifically disclaimed by the manufacturer or the seller. Claims involving real estate may also be brought under a theory of implied warranty of habitability.
Negligence
A basic negligence claim consists of proof of 1) a duty owed, 2) a breach of that duty, 3) the breach was the actual cause of the plaintiff's injury, 4) the breach proximately caused the plaintiff's injury, 5) and the plaintiff suffered injury and actual quantifiable damages. Over time, negligence concepts have arisen to deal with certain specific situations, including negligence per se (using a manufacturer's violation of a law or regulation, in place of proof of a duty and a breach) and res ipsa loquitur (an inference of negligence under certain conditions).
Strict liability
Rather than focus on the behavior of the manufacturer (negligence), strict liability claims focus on the product itself. Under strict liability, the manufacturer is liable if the product is defective, even if the manufacturer was not negligent in making that product defective.
Under a strict liability theory, the plaintiff merely needs to prove 1) the defendant manufactured, distributed, or supplied a product; 2) the product was defective; 3) the defect caused injury to the plaintiff; and 4) as a result, the plaintiff sustained damages.
Consumer protection
In addition to common law remedies, many states have enacted consumer protection statutes that provide specific remedies for certain specific types of product defects. One reason for the appearance of such statutes is that under the "economic loss rule," strict liability in tort is unavailable for products that cause damage only to themselves. In other words, strict liability is unavailable for defects that merely render the product unusable (or less useful), and hence cause only economic injury, but do not cause personal injury or damage to other property. Breach of warranty actions governed by Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code also often fail to provide adequate remedies in such situations.