Court Opinion

ID: 9626479
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:14:06.631292+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:28.239235
License: Public Domain

HATHAWAY, Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
A strong distaste for the doctrine of strict liability (see dissenting opinion in Bailey v. Montgomery Ward) causes the majority to wend their tortuous path backward into the shadows of privity and warranty. The innocent bystander, potentially one of the more obvious beneficiaries of the strict liability doctrine, is then deprived of its reasonable application. See Elmore v. American Motors Corp., 75 Cal.Rptr. 652, 451 P.2d 84 (1969); Piercefield v. Remington Arms Co., 375 Mich. 85, 133 N.W.2d 129 (1965).
I am unable to join the lament for economic distress caused a manufacturer of defective products, particularly when I consider the gladdening prospect that such distress operates toward eliminating defective products and the injuries which they cause. The judgment should be reversed as to General Motors Corporation and Young Buick.