Opinion ID: 1467741
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The trial court's instruction to the jury on appellant's strict liability for a defect in the tire

Text: Having concluded that a new trial is required because of the trial court's error in admitting the testimony of appellees' experts on the cause of the accident, we might refrain from ruling on the other issues that have been argued to us. However, one of those issues, in particular, the issue of how the trial court should instruct the jury on appellant's strict liability, may very well arise at the new trial. Accordingly, some discussion of it is warranted. The first requirement that appellees will have to meet at the new trial will be to offer qualified expert testimony that the tire mixture was a proximate cause of the accident. If no such testimony is offered, the trial court will have no occasion to instruct the jury regarding appellant's strict liability, for in the absence of proof of causation, appellant's radial tire could not be found defective because it was not embossed with a warning not to mix it with non-radial tires. Suppose, for example, that A sells a bottled drink to B, and B pours the drink into a glass filled with ice-cubes, becomes ill, and sues A for selling a product defective because the bottle's label failed to include a warning not to mix the drink with ice-cubes. B will not make out a case for the jury unless he proves that mixing ice-cubes with the drink did in fact make him ill. If the mixing did not make B ill, there was no need to warn against the mixing, and therefore no defect in the bottle's label. Assuming, however, that appellees are able to present competent evidence of proximate cause at a new trial, that is, that they do offer the testimony of qualified experts, the issue will then arise whether appellant's radial tire was defective because it was not embossed with a warning not to mix it with non-radial tires. In that event, what will be the trial court's responsibility?