Court Opinion

ID: 9739895
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:23:00.011855+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:14.506748
License: Public Domain

O’Connor, J.
(dissenting in part). I agree that the jury instructions on the breach of warranty claim were deficient, and that a new trial of that claim is necessary. I do not agree, however, that the instructions on the negligence claim were deficient. Retrial of the negligence claim is inappropriate.
It is true, of course, that, if a manufacturer has negligently placed its product into a stream of commerce, a plaintiff’s unreasonable use of that product does not necessarily bar his *78recovery for negligence. The parties’ negligent contribution to the injury must be compared. Colter v. Barber-Greene Co., ante 50, 63-64 (1988). The judge did not instruct the jury otherwise. Specifically, he did not instruct the jury otherwise when he told them that a “manufacturer is not liable for the consequences of the unforeseeable misuse of its product” {ante at 76, emphasis added), and that the jury may find for the manufacturer if they find that the deceased used the product in a manner which the manufacturer reasonably could not have foreseen.
It is clear from the instructions’ context that, when the judge made the statements the court holds to be erroneous, his focus was on the standard by which the jury were to measure the manufacturer’s conduct. That instruction was necessary in light of the evidence recited in the court’s opinion concerning the manner in which the deceased used the product. The instruction was correct. The only deficiency, of which the plaintiff cannot complain, was that the judge should have told the jury that if the deceased’s use of the product was not foreseeable by the manufacturer, the jury must find for the manufacturer. Foreseeability of use, and therefore of risk, are critical components of unreasonableness in production. They are essential to products liability whether based on negligence or breach of warranty. The court’s contrary statement,1 ante at 77, reveals a serious misunderstanding of products liability law. Just as a manufacturer is not liable for the consequences of an unforeseeable use (or misuse) of its product on a breach of warranty theory, Allen v. Chance Mfg. Co., 398 Mass. 32, 34 (1986), a manufacturer is not liable for the consequences of an unforeseeable use (or misuse) of its product on a negligence theory. As the court said in Hayes v. Ariens Co., 391 Mass. 407, 410 (1984), “[a] defendant cannot be found to have been negligent without having breached the warranty of merchantability.” Contrary to the court’s assertion, ante at 77, the deceased’s use of the product did not “at best, raise[] only the issue of the comparative negligence of the deceased.”

 “Thus, while this instruction correctly states the law as to a products liability claim, it was inappropriate on the negligence count.”