Opinion ID: 2046018
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Was it proper to submit both a strict liability and a breach of warranty theory to the jury?

Text: Plaintiffs also sought recovery under a theory of breach of implied warranty of merchantability. BRK contends that the district court erred in submitting to the jury both the strict liability and breach of warranty theories, relying on Nelson v. Todd's Ltd., 426 N.W.2d 120 (Iowa 1988). We said in Nelson that [f]ew cases will sufficiently involve the theories of breach of warranty and strict liability to warrant presenting both theories to a jury. 426 N.W.2d at 125 (citing Hawkeye Sec. Ins. Co. v. Ford Motor Co., 199 N.W.2d 373, 381 (Iowa 1972)). Nelson, however, involved the issue of whether a strict liability theory, in addition to a warranty claim, should be submitted to the jury when the plaintiff has only suffered economic loss. We stated the well established general rule that purely economic injuries without accompanying physical injury to the user or consumer or to the user or consumer's property is not recoverable under strict liability. 426 N.W.2d at 123. We said in Kemin Industries v. KPMG Peat Marwick, 578 N.W.2d 212, 220 (Iowa 1998), that Nelson was limited to deciding whether purely economic injuries without accompanying physical injury are recoverable under a theory of strict liability in tort. In their case against BRK, the Mercers do not seek property damages sustained as a result of the fire, but rather seek damages for personal injuries under a strict liability claim based on the theory that the defect in the model 83R, which allegedly resulted in the failure of the detector to alarm to the Mercers' fire, created an unreasonable risk of danger. Therefore, nothing we said in Nelson supports BRK's contention that the district court was somehow precluded from submitting both strict liability and warranty claims to the jury. Thus, the damages sustained by plaintiffs caused by an alleged safety hazard in BRK's product relate to more than just their disappointed expectations of the product to perform as expected. See American Fire & Cas. Co. v. Ford Motor, 588 N.W.2d 437, 439 (Iowa 1999) (stating that defects of suitability and quality are redressed through contract actions and safety hazards through tort actions) (cited sources omitted). Additionally, we conclude the evidence with respect to plaintiffs' negligence theory of liability is likewise sufficient to create a jury question on plaintiffs' breach of implied warranty claim. See 63A Am. Jur.2d Products Liability § 1110, at 265 (1997) (stating that factual questions regarding duty to warn and causation underlying both a negligence and warranty claim are essentially identical; although the standards applied under the two claims differ slightly a defendant cannot be found to have been negligent without having breached the warranty of merchantability); see also Lovick, 588 N.W.2d at 698 (stating that although claims for negligence, strict liability, and breach of warranty are separate and distinct theories of liability under products liability law, the same facts often give rise to those three claims). Accordingly, we conclude that the district court did not err in submitting both strict liability and breach of warranty theories to the jury.