Court Opinion

ID: 9712889
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:02:13.693333+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:15.058634
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE FITZGERALD, also specially concurring: The majority’s well-written opinion concerns an often confusing area of evolving law. Today’s decision states that the risk-utility test is not applicable in a negligence cause of action. I write because I believe that specific ruling is dicta. Additionally, I believe that the risk-utility test is part of a court’s duty analysis. However, the larger question — the degree that the risk-utility test is coextensive with a duty analysis in a design defect case — need not be answered in this case. As an initial matter, the majority’s discussion of the applicability of the risk-utility test to negligence is dicta. Plaintiffs expert consulting engineer, Marvin Salzenstein, did not testify as to the standard of care. The majority concludes that, as a result, plaintiff did not prove his case in negligence because there is no evidence of the standard of care, or that it was breached. 215 Ill. 2d at 100. Importantly, however, defendant did not object to this omission. For this reason, the majority holds that a future objection on this error is foreclosed. 215 Ill. 2d at 100. I agree with this resolution. However, the majority then goes on to state that the “risk-utility test is not applicable” in assessing a design defect claim based in negligence. 215 Ill. 2d at 98. Because the majority determines that defendant has not properly challenged the duty determination, I believe it is unnecessary to decide whether the risk-utility test is applicable in determining a duty in a negligence design defect case. It is therefore dicta. Moreover, I write because I disagree with the categorical conclusion that the risk-utility test does not apply in a negligence design defect case. 215 Ill. 2d at 97, 108. The implication of this statement is that the risk-utility test is not relevant to the duty inquiry. I believe the correct conclusion is borne from the following question: What role does the risk-utility test play in the duty analysis? A look at the evolving law in this area reveals that the test does in fact play a role in evaluating the existence of a duty. According to traditional principles, “The product liability action brought under strict liability is different from negligence mainly in the element of scienter; plaintiff need not prove that the defendant negligently created the unsafe condition of the product or that defendant was aware of such condition. Strict liability looks at the product itself and determines if it is defective, whereas negligence looks at the act of the manufacturer and the court determines if the manufacturer exercised ordinary care in design and production. In short, an action based on strict liability in tort focuses upon the nature of the product, rather than the conduct of the defendant. In negligence, foreseeability of harm is a fact question, whereas, in strict liability, a product’s propensity to inflict harm is assumed. The distinction between the two theories of recovery is that the inability of the defendant to know or prevent the risk is not a defense to a strict liability action, but such inability does preclude a finding of negligence. Thus, there is no inconsistency in a jury finding that there is a defect in a product, but that a plaintiff has failed to prove negligence on the defendant’s part.” 63 Am. Jur. 2d Products Liability § 545 (1997). Stated another way, “Although liability in negligence cases rests on whether the defendant acted as a reasonable person would have acted, liability in strict liability cases rests on whether a prudent manufacturer, if it were aware of dangers involved in using its products as those dangers are known from hindsight, would have placed the product into the stream of commerce; the plaintiff need not prove that the danger was foreseeable. Thus, strict liability differs from negligence, for purposes of design defect analysis, to the extent that the foreseeability of the dangerous propensities of the product is imputed to the manufacturer in strict tort liability analysis. Knowledge of the dangerous potential of a machine design as reflected in the evidence at trial is imputable to the manufacturer, and the remaining determinative question is whether a reasonably prudent manufacturer with such foreknowledge would have put such a product into the stream of commerce after considering the hazards as well as the utility of the machine, the ease of incorporating an alternative, safer design, the likelihood, vel non that the machine would be used in the manner which led to the plaintiffs injury, and such other factors as bear upon the prudence of a reasonable manufacturer in deciding whether to market the machine.” 63A Am. Jur. 2d Products Liability § 959 (1997). Thus, the scienter requirement, namely, the foreseeability of harm, is the primary distinction between negligence and strict liability in design defect cases. See Hansen v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 198 Ill. 2d 420, 438 (2002) (declining to address issue of whether the risk-utility test includes “foreseeability” as defined in the Restatement (Third) of Torts). The above-quoted material represents the traditional state of the law on this issue. This ironclad distinction between strict liability and negligence has been eroded by some courts and commentators. The Restatement (Third) of Torts best illustrates this erosion. As the majority states, “[w]e also note that the comments to sections 1 and 2 of the Third Restatement emphasize the close relationship between the risk-utility test in defective product design actions sounding in strict liability and the ordinary negligence standard, going so far as to take the position that any difference may be semantical.” 215 Ill. 2d at 108, citing Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability § 1, Comment a, at 7-8 (1998). This purported semantical difference rests on the foreseeability element. For example, section 2(b) of the Third Restatement of Torts: Products Liability states a product “is defective in design when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design by the seller or other distributor *** and the omission of the alternative design renders the product not reasonably safe.” Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability § 2(b), at 14 (1998). The appellate court in the instant matter recognized this problem when it set the tests side by side. It stated, “To determine the existence of a duty in a negligence action, the court will consider: (1) foreseeability, (2) likelihood of injury, (3) magnitude of the burden on the defendant to guard against the injury, and (4) consequences of placing the burden on the defendant. [Citation.] The risk-utility test employs the following considerations: (1) the gravity of the danger posed by the challenged design, (2) the likelihood that such danger would occur, (3) the mechanical feasibility of a safer alternative design, and (4) the adverse consequences to the product and to the consumer that would result from an alternative design. [Citation.] As previously noted, the similarities between the considerations employed by these tests cannot be negated by simply changing the terminology.” 345 Ill. App. 3d at 467. Thus, the question — the extent to which the risk-utility test plays in negligence cases — rests upon whether the “foreseeability” element is merely a semantical distinction. If the difference is only semantical, then risk-utility and the duty analysis are similar tools. If the distinction retains force, the proper ingredients of a duty determination include the risk-utility test and foreseeability. Importantly, applying risk utility in a negligence cause of action does not erode the scienter distinction between strict liability and negligence as it exists under traditional law. For this reason, I would find that the risk-utility test is inherent in a negligence design defect action. However, the larger question — the degree that the risk-utility test is coextensive with a duty analysis in a design defect case — remains unanswered. Again, because the resolution of the instant case does not require that we answer the larger question, I would leave the issue open for a more appropriate time. As such, I would continue to follow our statement in Hansen that, “[w]e do not foreclose the consideration of the Restatement (Third) of Torts standard in another case where it is raised at trial and is appropriately briefed and argued.” Hansen, 198 Ill. 2d at 438. For these reasons, I specially concur.