Court Opinion

ID: 9711917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:42:00.816548+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:08.286373
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION TO TRANSFER
DeBRULER, Justice,
concurring in result.
Safety devices, such as safety glasses, are designed to shield and protect the user, the workmen in the plant in this case, from perceived hazards. I take it as plain truth that the protection provided by such devices is limited in nature. The user of safety devices therefore needs to know these limitations in real and practical terms, so as to arm the user not to rely upon them for protection in inappropriate circumstances, and thereby suffer injury. The manufacturer who designs and produces such devices has this information, and must be charged with knowing of this inherent danger. There must therefore arise a legal duty of a manufacturer of safety devices to supply adequate warnings with them.
*189In this case, the manufacturer placed these glasses into the stream of commerce with warnings attached. The tool crib man at the plant, stripped the warning tags and stickers off before selling them to employees. That act had to occur before the glasses could be used. That act in this case by an intervenor however caused the glasses to reach the ultimate user in defective form, ie., without necessary warning tags and stickers. I would point out here particularly the one which stated that scratches on the lens reduced protection. In my judgment, as a consequence of the detachment, there was insufficient evidence that the glasses were defective because of inadequate warnings by the manufacturer. I therefore concur in the result reached by the Court's majority.
HUNTER, J., concurs.