Opinion ID: 1662402
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Heading: Liability for Distribution of Defective Blood Under Article 2315

Text: Articles 2315-24 of the Louisiana Civil Code comprise the code's entire chapter of legal principles regulating offenses and quasi-offenses. The underlying principle is provided by Article 2315: Every act whatever of man that causes damage to another obliges him by whose fault it happened to repair it.    The remaining articles constitute amplifications as to what constitutes fault and under what circumstances a defendant may be held liable for his act or that of a person or thing for which he is responsible. Loescher v. Parr, 324 So.2d 441 (La.1975). Definitions of fault are actually indefinite generalities and usually not illuminating when applying the concept. Colin and Capitant have said that fault signifies that conduct which a man should not have engaged inthat is, that he has acted as he should not have acted. 2 Colin et Capitant, Cours elementaire de droit civil francais (8e Ed. 1935) § 190. Defining fault is a logomachy. Because of the difficulty in finding fault for all times and purposes and instead of defining fault by listing numerous activities which constitute fault (much as we enumerate the activities which constitute criminal conduct in our criminal code) our law has left this determination in the hands of the court. Langlois v. Allied Chemical Corp., 258 La. 1067, 1076, 249 So.2d 133, 137 (1971). In defining fault for purposes of products liability in Weber v. Fidelity & Cas. Co. of N.Y., 259 La. 599, 250 So.2d 754 (1971), this court held: A manufacturer of a product which involves a risk of injury to the user is liable to any person, whether the purchaser or a third person, who without fault on his part, sustains an injury caused by a defect in the design, composition, or manufacture of the article, if the injury might reasonably have been anticipated. However, the plaintiff claiming injury has the burden of proving that the product was defective, i. e., unreasonably dangerous to normal use, and that the plaintiff's injuries were caused by reason of the defect.    If the product is proven defective by reason of its hazard to normal use, the plaintiff need not prove any particular negligence by the maker in its manufacture or processing; for the manufacturer is presumed to know the vices in the things he makes, whether or not he has actual knowledge of them. Id. 250 So.2d at 755-756. Defendant blood bank contends that plaintiffs may not recover in tort under Weber because the blood was not defective, i. e., unreasonably dangerous to normal use, for three reasons: (1) The judgment of whether the product is unreasonably dangerous to normal use must be based on the manufacturer's entire line or his total activity, rather than the single product used by plaintiff. (This is implicitly assumed by defendant, not expressly argued); (2) The social utility of the distribution of blood greatly outweighs the risk of its harm; and (3) Blood banks have no way of preventing distribution of the relatively small amounts of unwholesome blood that cause harm. In essence, defendant relies on an argument that the activity of distributing blood involves danger, but a reasonable danger which should be tolerated for its benefits, and that consumers must bear the cost of the inherent risks involved. Defendant's arguments, however, misconstrue the unreasonably dangerous limitation. These words were included within the definition of legal fault to prevent manufacturers from becoming insurers of their own products. Unreasonably dangerous means simply that the article which injured the plaintiff was dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by an ordinary consumer. The history of strict liability in Louisiana indicates the requirement that a defective product must be unreasonably dangerous came into our jurisprudence due to the pervasive influence of section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts after its publication in 1965. Louisiana's law in the products liability area has been described by commentators as closely approximating that of common law states following the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A. See Andrus, Strict Liability Under Civil Code Articles 2317, 2318 and 2321: An Initial Analysis, 25 La.Bar J. 105 (1977); Robertson, Manufacturers' Liability for Defective Products in Louisiana Law, 50 Tul.L.Rev. 50 (1975). This view has also been taken by federal courts interpreting Louisiana law. See Perez v. Ford Motor Co., 497 F.2d 82 (5th Cir.1974); Welch v. Outboard Marine Corp., 481 F.2d 252 (5th Cir.1973). After using the unreasonably dangerous limitation in Weber as a condition to legal fault under Article 2315, this court employed a similar requirement in summarizing the principles of legal fault under Articles 2317, 2318, 2320, 2321, 2322. We held that strict liability results from the conduct or defect of a person or thing which creates an unreasonable risk of harm to others. Loescher v. Parr, supra . Furthermore, this court in Loescher clearly expressed the underlying reason for the legal fault arising from these code provisions, sometimes referred to as strict liability: Thus, the person to whom society allots the supervision, care, or guardianship (custody) of the risk-creating person or thing bears the loss resulting from creation of the risk, rather than some innocent third person harmed as a consequence of his failure to prevent the risk. Id., 324 So.2d p. 446. According to the original comment to Section 402A, a defective condition is one not contemplated by the ultimate consumer, which will be unreasonably dangerous to him. Restatement (Second) Torts, § 402A comment g. Comment i, defining unreasonably dangerous, states: The article must be dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by the ordinary consumer who purchases it, with the ordinary knowledge common to the community as to its characteristics. See Welch v. Outboard Marine Corp., supra ; Loyocano v. Continental Ins. Co., 283 So.2d 302 (La.App. 4th Cir.1973). A consumer expectation approach is particularly appropriate in Louisiana which has aligned itself with those jurisdictions showing particular concern for consumer interests. Media Production Consultants, Inc. v. Mercedes-Benz of North America, Inc., 262 La. 80, 90, 262 So.2d 377, 381 (1972). Examples given in comment i make it clear that such innocuous products as sugar and butter, unless contaminated, would not give rise to a strict liability claim merely because the former may be harmful to a diabetic or the latter may aggravate the blood cholesterol level of a person with heart disease. Presumably such dangers are squarely within the contemplation of the ordinary consumer. Cronin v. J. B. E. Olson Corp., 8 Cal.3d 121, 104 Cal.Rptr. 433, 441, 501 P.2d 1153, 1161 (1972). Prosser, the reporter for the Restatement, suggests that the unreasonably dangerous qualification was added to foreclose the possibility that the manufacturer of a product with inherent possibilities for harm (for example butter, drugs, whiskey and automobiles) would become automatically responsible for all the harm that such things do in the world. Prosser, Strict Liability to the Consumer in California, 18 Hastings L.J. 9, 23 (1966). We recognize that the words unreasonably dangerous may serve the beneficial purpose of preventing the manufacturer from being treated as the insurer of its products. We conclude, however, that the term may be used only for this purpose, and certainly not to burden the injured plaintiff with proof of an element which rings of negligence. Otherwise, the formulation of strict liability in practice rarely would lead to a different conclusion than would have been reached under the laws of negligence. Cronin v. J. B. E. Olson Corp., supra, 104 Cal.Rptr. at 442, 501 P.2d at 1162. See, Comment, 40 La.L.Rev. 207 (1979). Yet the very purpose of strict liability is to relieve the plaintiff from problems of proof inherent in pursuing negligence and warranty remedies, and thereby to insure that the costs of injuries resulting from defective things are borne by those responsible for them. See Loescher v. Parr, supra, at 446. Courts in a number of jurisdictions abrogated the requirement that the defect be unreasonably dangerous, concluding that requiring plaintiff only to prove the existence of a defect is more consistent with the policies giving rise to products liability initially and lessens the risk that negligence elements are injected into the plaintiff's case. E. g., Butand v. Suburban Marine & Sporting Goods, Inc., 543 P.2d 209 (Alaska 1975); Cronin v. J. B. E. Olson Corp., supra ; Glass v. Ford Motor Co., 123 N.J.Super. 599, 304 A.2d 562 (1973). In their view, the protective end of preventing the seller from becoming an insurer of his products is attained by the necessity of proving that there was a defect in the manufacture or design of the product and that such defect was a proximate cause of the injuries. We have determined, nevertheless, that the requirement of an unreasonable risk as a condition to strict liability should be retained. It must be carefully applied, however, with its true purpose in mind. Accordingly, we conclude that blood contaminated with hepatitis virus is defective, i. e., unreasonably dangerous to normal use. The risks involved in receiving a transfusion of blood in this condition are certainly greater than a reasonable consumer would expect. See, e. g., L. Frumer and M. Friedman, Products Liability § 16A[4][f][i] at pp. 3B-124, 126 (1980); 1 M. Dixon, Drug Product Liability § 9.08[4] at pp. 9-119 (1980); Boland, Strict Liability in Tort for Transfusing Contaminated Blood, 23 Ark.L.Rev. 236 (1969); Verlander, Article 2317 Liability: An Analysis of Louisiana Jurisprudence Since Loescher v. Parr, 25 Loy.L.Rev. 263, 268 (1979); Note, 71 Colum.L.Rev. 487 (1971); Note, 46 N.Y.U.L. Rev. 703 (1971).