Court Opinion

ID: 9742656
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:17:31.395946+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:34.592411
License: Public Domain

Hallows, J.
{dissenting). I consider this unstable plastic toy airplane an inherently dangerous instrumentality for use by children. I find no evidence to sustain the jury’s verdict that the negligence of the defendant was not causal. Certainly the grandmother’s purchasing the toy and the father’s hiding it was not causal negligence. The use of this toy by the minor plaintiff under the circumstances should not be considered an improper use of the plane and the cause of the injury whether the child shot the toy airplane five feet or 500 feet.
The majority opinion refuses to consider the important question of implied warranty on the ground the toy plane was not a dangerous instrumentality. I would consider and decide this question. The majority opinion is informative of the growing area of products liability but is unsatisfactory in avoiding a decision of the question which was well briefed, argued, and properly presented. In my view, privity of contract has no place in an implied-warranty case involving inherently dangerous instrumentalities particularly here where the intended use of the instrumentality was deceptively harmless to a child.