Court Opinion

ID: 9552300
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:08:22.724134+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:26:06.911535
License: Public Domain

HOLMAN, J.,
specially concurring.
Causes of action brought by the consumer on the basis of the strict liability of manufacturers and wholesalers for damages resulting from the sale of goods of unmerchantable quality should be limited to those situations where the use of the defective product results in physical harm to persons or property. See the discussion in Seely v. White Motor Co., 45 Cal Rptr 17, 403 P2d 145 (1965). In the past, the attaching of liability where there is no privity has been primarily for the benefit of persons physically injured by the defect. This is so whether responsibility was attached on the theory of enterprise liability, implied negligence through the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, or implied warranty. Seldom has it been for solely economic loss.
What is the basis for distinguishing between the two? At first there seems to be no logical basis to distinguish them when they have resulted from the *319same thing — the defective product. Prohahly the reason is social rather than legal, if the two can be distinguished. In establishing liability in personal injury cases courts have been motivated to overlook any necessity for privity because the hazard to life and health is usually a personal disaster of major proportions to the individual both physically and financially and something of minor importance to the manufacturer or wholesaler against which they can protect themselves by a distribution of risk through the price of the article sold. There has not been the same social necessity to motivate the recovery for strictly economic losses where the damaged person’s health, and therefore his basic earning capacity, has remained unimpaired. To enforce strict liability for personal injuries because of such necessity and then to allow recovery for purely economic losses because they arise from the same defect is to apply the doctrine of strict liability when the original motivating factor therefor is not present. I doubt that it is wise to swing the door open to all who are disappointed with their purchase. They should be left for that kind of recovery to the one with whom they dealt.
For the reason stated above, I concur in the result of Justice Goodwin’s opinion.