Under Pennsylvania law, any person or entity that places the product in the stream of commerce can be held responsible, assuming that it’s part of their ordinary business. This means that if you have a company that routinely designs, manufactures, distributes, or sells a product, anyone in the chain of commerce can be held responsible. The reason for that is that the courts have decided that as a matter of public policy, if you have a business and you are profiting from any of those activities, then you should be held liable for any problems or defects that cause injuries to consumers. Because those entities are profiting from the design, manufacture, distribution, or sale product in question, then they should be held responsible if there’s something that goes wrong with the product.
Can Someone Injured By a Product Prevail In A Product Liability Case If They Did Not Buy The Product?
Yes, even if you did not purchase the product, you may still be able to win a product liability case. Under Pennsylvania law, bystanders, or just about anyone who was injured by a defective product, can make that claim. For example, if a car malfunctions and it crashes into a pedestrian walking down the street, that pedestrian did not buy the car and was not using the car, but certainly could make a claim against the manufacturer. We see this quite frequently with people who are injured in the course of their employment. They are using equipment purchased by their employer or someone else, not by the injured individual. For example, we recently had a case involving a pipe that was being used in the hydraulic fracking of a well–the truck driver who delivered the pipe was standing next to his truck when the pipe malfunctioned and exploded and flew about 100 feet through the air and struck him in the head. We brought a product liability case against the manufacturer and supplier of the pipe based upon its malfunction.
Can Someone Prevail In A Product Liability Claim If They Did Not Use The Product Properly?
Even if you did not use the product properly, you may still be able to bring a product liability claim. This depends entirely on the specifics of your case. If the misuse of a product is foreseeable to the manufacturer, then under Pennsylvania law we may be able to recover. If the misuse is reckless and not foreseeable, then we probably will not be able to recover. Products typically have some instructions and some warnings about the way in which the product should be used. Not all products require warnings or instructions, as some are self-evident. For those products that do require written warnings or instructions, they should be prominent or clear. If they are not prominent and clear, or if they are misleading and confusing, that could make a product defective.
For example, if there are instructions that are misleading, and the person using the product fails to follow the instructions because they are misleading and confusing, that in and of itself could make the product defective. So it’s possible even if there is some sort of an improper use of a product to bring that case, but it makes it more difficult.
What Role Do Expert Witnesses Play In A Product Liability Case?
Expert witnesses are essential to a product liability case. We go to great lengths to find proper, qualified experts, who are the top experts in the country, or in the world, about a particular product. The reason for that is because we need them to explain to a jury during a trial whether there are scientific or engineering standards and principles that apply to our case, and whether there are alternative designs available. That has become an important issue more recently in Pennsylvania, with a relatively new case out of a Supreme Court dealing with proving alternative designs. Additionally, we need experts to do such things as testing the product to determine whether it was manufactured correctly and whether it has failed to perform as design.
For example, if you have some sort of a metal product that breaks and fails, a lot of times it’s not obvious what the defect is. You need to get a metallurgist to test the metal to determine whether it was fabricated in a way in which it should have been. Sometimes during the forging process of metal products, they don’t use the proper mix or proper procedures, and the product ends up weaker than it is designed to be, and it fails as a result. Design engineers will look at a product and be able to determine what could go wrong with the product, or how could somebody be injured by it. An expert can help you identify the potential risks inherent in a product and then help answer whether there a way in which that risk could be completely eliminated? If the answer is yes, but that design was not used, then we have a product liability case based upon an inadequate design.
If the answer is no, and there are some products where you cannot eliminate the risk, then the next question is whether there a way to minimize that risk? If so, did the manufacturer and designer make efforts to minimize the risk? The final thing is that if there was not a way to completely eliminate the risk or even minimize it, then there should be prominent warning and instructions so that the user can avoid that risk. We consult with engineering professors and a variety of scientific experts in particular fields, depending upon the product, to help us prepare the case and then to testify on our behalf at trial.
For more information on Liability In A Product Liability Claim, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling 1-844-334-6654 today.