Court Opinion

ID: 9642558
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 18:02:35.18779+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:49.580704
License: Public Domain

WELLIVER, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the principal opinion and write separately to emphasize that, instead of carving out an exception to Keener v. Dayton Electric Mfg. Co., 445 S.W.2d 362 (Mo.1969), the principal opinion properly refuses to expand strict liability for product liability to situations where it is not warranted. The architects of § 402(a), Judge Traynor, William Prosser and others, recognized the need to allow injured consumers or remote parties the ability to sue suppliers, sellers or manufacturers absent the technical requirements of privity in a contract action or without the need to prove negligence in a tort action. The rationale for such a doctrine was that consumers ar.d remote parties are not on an equal footing with the manufacturer or seller to bargain effectively for the allocation of risk. However, when commercial parties of equal bargaining power enter into a contract which either expressly allocates the risk or by omission is allocated under the terms of the Uniform Commercial Code, the policy behind strict liability does not apply. Either the contract or the U.C.C. governs the allocation of risk. See generally Spring Motors Dist., Inc., v. Ford Motor Co., 489 A.2d 660 (N.J.1985).
In the case at bar, the respondents and appellant are both commercial parties who were on an equal footing during the sale of the crane. Respondents, the buyer, had the benefit of the U.C.C. when it purchased *904the crane. Had it desired an extended warranty it could have bargained for such a warranty. It might be noted that it did take out insurance and, in fact, has already received the benefit of its insurance policy and subrogated its rights in this suit to its carrier. This is not the type of situation warranting the extension of strict liability in product liability. Instead, the parties should look to the U.C.C.