Court Opinion

ID: 9573319
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:52:23.933008+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:40:20.053044
License: Public Domain

Pope, Chief Judge,
concurring specially.
I am compelled to agree with the majority that only the actual manufacturer of a product may be held strictly liable for defects in a product under OCGA § 51-1-11.1 as it is written. However, I believe this law is unfair when it is applied to a case such as this one, where a company has put its own trade name on a product, thus leading the public to believe it manufactured the product even though it did not. Other states which statutorily immunize or limit the liability of nonmanufacturers as a general matter nonetheless provide in their statutes that nonmanufacturers have the liability of manufacturers if they market the product under their label, trade name or brand name. See Ohio Rev. Code Ann., § 2307.78 (B) (7) (Anderson 1991); Wash. Rev. Code Ann., § 7.72.040 (2) (e) (1992). To avoid unfairness, I recommend that our legislature fine tune our statute in the same way.
I am authorized to state that Judge Blackburn, Judge Smith and Senior Appellate Judge Harold R. Banke concur with this special concurrence.