Court Opinion

ID: 9529646
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:53:02.014439+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:52.910532
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE MORAN, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I concur in the majority’s judgment with respect to counts II and III. However, I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which limits a manufacturer’s liability under strict liability in tort for failure to warn of a danger inherent in its product to situations in which the manufacturer knows or has reason to know of the danger. The majority opinion sets forth the applicable section of the Restatement, section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1965), but then focuses on language appearing in a comment to that section. The comment provides that a seller is required to give warning if “he has knowledge, or by application of reasonable, developed human skill and foresight should have knowledge” of the danger. (Restatement (Second) of Torts sec. 402A, comment j (1965).) In focusing upon this language, the majority ignores the rule, set forth in the body of the section, that the seller is liable even though “the seller has exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale of his product ***.” (Restatement (Second) of Torts sec. 402A(2)(a) (1965).) The quoted language from the comment directly conflicts with the rule itself, and, in my view, should not control. (Accord, Little v. PPG Industries, Inc. (1978), 19 Wash. App. 812, 822, 579 P.2d 940, 946, aff’d as modified (1979), 92 Wash. 2d 118, 594 P.2d 911; Noel, Products Defective Because of Inadequate Directions or Warnings, 23 Sw. L.J. 256, 268, 297 (1969).) Moreover, section 388 of the Restatement, which governs a supplier’s duty to warn under negligence principles (Dougherty v. Hooker Chemical Corp. (3d Cir. 1976), 540 F.2d 174, 177-78; Martinez v. Dixie Carriers, Inc.. (5th Cir. 1976), 529 F.2d 457, 464-65), expressly conditions liability upon the supplier’s knowledge or reason to know of the danger. (Restatement (Second) of Torts sec. 388 (1965).) Thus, in requiring knowledge, the majority is ruling that defendant’s liability is to be determined under a negligence standard, despite its pronouncements to the contrary. In strict liability actions, the focus is on the condition of the product and not on the conduct of the manufacturer or seller. This is the feature which primarily distinguishes strict liability from negligence. “In strict liability it is of no moment what defendant ‘had reason to believe.’ Liability arises from ‘sell[ing] any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer.’ It is the unreasonableness of the condition of the product, not of the conduct of the defendant, that creates liability.” Dougherty v. Hooker Chemical Corp. (3d Cir. 1976), 540 F.2d 174, 177, quoting Jackson v. Coast Paint & Lacquer Co. (9th Cir. 1974), 499 F.2d 809, 812. The majority cites several decisions which assertedly stand for the proposition that knowledge is an essential element in a failure-to-warn case. Of the cases cited which contain language supporting this proposition, however, only Oakes v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. (1969), 272 Cal. App. 2d 645, 77 Cal. Rptr. 709, squarely faced the issue. (The holdings in the remaining cases were not dependent upon the issue’s resolution.) It is noteworthy that the California Supreme Court has cast doubt on the vitality of Oakes, an appellate court opinion, in Cronin v. J.B.E. Olson Corp. (1972), 8 Cal. 3d 121, 501 P.2d 1153, 104 Cal. Rptr. 433 (see Midgley v. S.S. Kresge Co. (1976), 55 Cal. App. 3d 67, 73, 127 Cal. Rptr. 217, 220-21), and, more recently, in Barker v. Lull Engineering Co. (1978), 20 Cal. 3d 413, 573 P.2d 443, 143 Cal. Rptr. 225. Finally, the last case which the majority cites, Phillips v. Kimwood Machine Co. (1974), 269 Or. 485, 525 P.2d 1033, is precisely contrary to the majority’s stance, as pointed out below. The majority quotes the standard propounded by Dean Keeton for application in failure-to-warn cases. Instead of supporting the majority’s position, however, Dean Keeton’s formulation, which does not condition liability upon the defendant’s knowledge or reason to know of the danger, does just the opposite. This is evident upon reading Dean Keeton’s general proposition, applicable in any case to determine whether a product is unreasonably dangerous, which appears in the article directly following the standard referred to by the majority: “ [I] f the sale of the product under all the circumstances under which it was marketed subjected the consumer or others to an unreasonable risk of harm, the seller is subject to liability, and it is not relevant that he neither knew nor could have known nor ought to have known in the exercise of ordinary care that the unreasonable risk actually existed. It is enough that had he known of the risk and dangers he would not have marketed the product at all or he would have done so differently.” (Keeton, Products Liability— Inadequacy of Information, 48 Tex. L. Rev. 398, 404 (1970).) This formulation thus removes any question of whether the defendant knew or should have known about the extent of the dangers resulting from the use of the product. Similarly, according to Professor Wade, the essential difference between negligence and strict liability is that, in the latter, it is not necessary for the plaintiff to prove either that the defendant negligently created the unsafe condition of the product or that he was aware of it. Wade, Strict Tort Liability of Manufacturers, 19 Sw. L.J. 5, 25 (1965). The Oregon Supreme Court, in Phillips v. Kimwood Machine Co. (1974), 269 Or. 485, 525 P.2d 1033, recognized and approved the distinction between strict liability and negligence in the context of the same issue as that involved here. In expressly overruling a prior case which had concluded that there was no difference between negligence and strict liability for a product that was unreasonably dangerous for failure to warn of certain characteristics, the court stated: “The article can have a degree of dangerousness because of a lack of warning which the law of strict liability will not tolerate even though the actions of the seller were entirely reasonable in selling the article without a warning considering what he knew or should have known at the time he sold it.” (269 Or. 485, 498, 525 P.2d 1033, 1039.) (See Robbins v. Farmers Union Grain Terminal Association (8th Cir. 1977), 552 F.2d 788, 794-95 n.15; Hamilton v. Hardy (1976), 37 Colo. App. 375, 384, 549 P.2d 1099, 1107.) The same attitude is expressed in Little v. PPG Industries, Inc. (1978), 19 Wash. App. 812, 820-22, 579 P.2d 940, 945-47, aff’d as modified (1979), 92 Wash. 2d 118, 594 P.2d 911. Mindful lest negligence concepts creep back into the law of strict tort liability, the California Supreme Court has gone so far as to purge the “unreasonably dangerous” factor from the list of essential elements which a plaintiff must prove. (Cronin v. J.B.E. Olson Corp. (1972), 8 Cal. 3d 121, 131-35, 501 P.2d 1153, 1161-63, 104 Cal. Rptr. 433, 441-43, followed in Barker v. Lull Engineering Co. (1978), 20 Cal. 3d 413, 417-18, 573 P.2d 443, 446, 143 Cal. Rptr. 225, 228.) Similarly recognizing the threatened dilution of the strict tort liability concept, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a lead opinion, stated that when a plaintiff proved there was a defect in the product and that the defect caused his injury, he will have proved the product unreasonably dangerous. Berkebile v. Brantly Helicopter Corp. (1975), 462 Pa. 83, 96-97, 337 A.2d 893, 899-900; cf. Azzarello v. Black Brothers (1978), 480 Pa. 547, 558, 391 A.2d 1020, 1026 (jury instruction should not contain the term “unreasonably dangerous”). The majority maintains'that the focus is on the nature of the product and the adequacy of the warning, rather than on the conduct of the manufacturer, and analogizes to the court’s recent opinion in Rucker v. Norfolk & Western Ry. Co. (1979), 77 Ill. 2d 434, a case in which Mr. Justice Ward and I joined in the dissent of the chief justice. Rucker was a design-defect case brought under strict liability in tort. There, a majority of the court held that evidence that the manufacturer complied with Federal regulations in designing its product, even though a safer alternative design was technologically feasible, is relevant in determining whether the product was in a defective, unreasonably dangerous condition. The dissent in that case was prompted, as here, by the majority’s obfuscation of the distinction between negligence and strict liability. I agree that if the plaintiff’s complaint in Rucker had sounded in negligence, the defendant properly could have introduced evidence that it had complied with Federal regulations in designing its product. Even under a negligence theory, however, a manufacturer or seller is not immunized from liability because it has complied with governmental requirements for the manufacture and sale of its product. (See Neering v. Illinois Central R.R. Co. (1943), 383 Ill. 366, 381-82; Burch v. Amsterdam Corp. (D.C. App. 1976), 366 A.2d 1079, 1085-86, and authorities cited at nn. 17 & 19.) But when the theory of recovery is strict liability, evidence of the defendant’s due care in complying with governmental requirements is irrelevant and has no place in the litigation. Similarly, the majority opinion in the instant case will open the door to allowing evidence of the defendant’s use of due care in its testing procedures. This is directly at odds with the basic notion of strict liability, which permits the injured plaintiff to recover without the burden of proving negligence. The majority’s assertion that removal of the knowledge element would make the manufacturer the virtual insurer of the product is an overstatement. In my view, the manufacturer is not made an insurer when it is held answerable for injuries to someone for whom its product is intended, who uses it in the manner in which it was intended to be used, and whose injuries were proximately caused by an inherent danger in the product of which the user was unaware. The majority confesses to an awareness that risks, often grave, may accompany the introduction of beneficial drugs into the marketplace. To me, this suggests a greater need for protecting the unsuspecting and unprotected consumer, and for making recovery under strict liability available to him in fact, and not just in theory. The majority further expresses concern that, if the knowledge element is eliminated, the warning itself would be a meaningless exercise. This does not necessarily follow. The manufacturer’s warnings and directions for the use of its product operate to establish the product’s intended uses and, by the same token, operate to prevent unintended uses, many of which may be dangerous. When the use of the product causes injury, the warnings and directions often assume relevancy in determining the manufacturer’s liability. Whether such warnings and directions are adequate to allow the manufacturer to avoid liability is ordinarily a question for the finder of fact, and must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Thus, it cannot be stated here what, if anything, the manufacturer could place on its product label or elsewhere to absolve itself from liability for harm caused by a danger inherent in its product in a situation in which the manufacturer had no knowledge of the danger. The manufacturer could, however, disclose under what circumstances its product has been found to be safe. Elimination of the knowledge element does not, in my opinion, necessarily foreclose the possibility that such a disclosure might enable the manufacturer to avoid liability. In summary, to condition plaintiff’s recovery under strict liability on his pleading and proving that defendant knew or had reason to know of the danger is to inject elements of negligence into plaintiff’s cause of action. Unlike negligence, the elements of a strict product liability action generally do not include knowledge or culpable fault. Consequently, inasmuch as the plaintiff is not required to plead and prove knowledge of the danger in manufacturing-defect or design-defect cases, no greater requirement should be imposed on plaintiffs in cases in which the defect is the lack of warning. GOLDENHERSH, C.J., and WARD, J., join in this partial concurrence and partial dissent.