Opinion ID: 2615072
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: failure to warn may be a product defect

Text: In its order granting summary judgment, the district court found, inter alia, that there was no defect in the Bell & Gossett product which was used in the plumbing system ... [and] that the product was not from Bell & Gossett but was through an intermediary... . Respondent argued at the hearing and in its appellate brief that the Monoflo fitting was not dangerous, unsafe, or defectively manufactured. It appears that respondent did not accompany its summary judgment motion with evidence relating to the need for a warning or the adequacy of any warnings given, although it presented evidence that it did not in fact know of appellant's proposed use of its product. Appellant presented evidence indicating that respondent should have foreseen the use of the Monoflo fitting in dual systems such as appellant's. Where the defendant has reason to anticipate that danger may result from a particular use of his product, and he fails to warn adequately of such a danger, the product sold without a warning is in a defective condition. Strict liability may be imposed even where the product is faultlessly made, if it was unreasonably dangerous to place the product in the hands of the consumer without adequate warnings concerning its safe and proper use. Outboard Marine Corp. v. Schupbach, 93 Nev. 158, 162-63, 561 P.2d 450, 453 (1977). See General Electric Co. v. Bush, 88 Nev. 360, 364-65, 498 P.2d 366, 369 (1972); Jacobsen v. Ducommun, Inc., 87 Nev. 240, 484 P.2d 1095 (1971). See also Anderson v. Heron Engineering Co., 198 Colo. 391, 604 P.2d 674, 676 (1979); McKee v. Moore, 648 P.2d 21, 23 (Okl. 1982). The adequacy of the warnings provided is ordinarily a jury question. Reiger v. Toby Enterprises, 45 Or. App. 679, 609 P.2d 402, 405 (1980). Strict liability applies to claims based on property damage as well as to personal injury cases. See Worrell v. Barnes, 87 Nev. 204, 484 P.2d 573 (1971); Rocky Mountain Fire & Cas. Co. v. Biddulph Oldsmobile, 131 Ariz. 289, 640 P.2d 851, 855 (1982). See also Local Joint Exec. Bd. v. Stern, 98 Nev. 409, 651 P.2d 637 (1982). Strict liability may extend not only to the dealer and retail seller of the product, but to the manufacturer of the product and the manufacturers of its component parts. Rocky Mountain Fire & Cas. Co. v. Biddulph Oldsmobile, 640 P.2d at 854. As the above authorities amply demonstrate, the district court erred insofar as the grant of summary judgment was based on the purportedly nondefective condition of the Monoflo fittings and the presence of an intermediate party in the chain of distribution of the fittings.