Opinion ID: 2635992
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Selma Decision

Text: Plaintiff asserts that we should adopt the reasoning of Selma Pressure Treating Co. v. Osmose Wood Preserving Co. (1990) 221 Cal.App.3d 1601, 271 Cal.Rptr. 596, which rejected the sophisticated user defense. But a close reading of Selma indicates that the court did not reject the defense at all. The issue in Selma was whether a manufacturer had to warn the general public of the risks of damage its chemicals caused that the ordinary user could not reasonably be expected to know. Selma acknowledged the sophisticated user defense through its pronouncement that the existence of unknown dangers gives rise to the duty to warn. ( Id. at p. 1623, 271 Cal.Rptr. 596.) Selma recognizes that a defendant may introduce evidence demonstrating that a user has sufficient expertise to be charged with the knowledge of risks associated with a particular product. (Ibid.) Selma's holding, therefore, is consistent with the sophisticated user defense and the other case law discussed thus far. Nothing in Selma's reasoning persuades us not to adopt the sophisticated user defense, and to the extent that it might cause confusion, we would disapprove of its reasoning.