Louisiana Products Liability Flashcards
What is the Louisiana Products Liability Act (LPLA)?
The LPLA provides the exclusive remedy for injuries caused by an unreasonably dangerous defect in a product.
What are the five elements required to establish a manufacturer’s liability under the LPLA?
- The defendant must be a manufacturer.
- The product’s unreasonably dangerous defect must be the proximate cause of the injury.
- The defect must be unreasonably dangerous in one of four ways.
- The defect must have existed at the time of manufacture.
- The damage must have arisen from a reasonably anticipated use of the product.
What is a manufacturer under the LPLA?
A manufacturer is an entity or person engaged in the business of manufacturing products and placing them into commerce.
What is proximate cause in product liability?
Proximate cause means that the unreasonably dangerous defect of the product must have directly caused the plaintiff’s injuries.
What are the four ways a product can be unreasonably dangerous under the LPLA?
- Construction or composition defect.
- Design defect.
- Inadequate warning.
- Breach of express warranty.
What is a construction or composition defect?
A material deviation from identical products manufactured by the same manufacturer.
What is a design defect?
A defect exists if there was an alternative design that would have reduced or prevented the plaintiff’s damages.
What factors are considered in a design defect claim?
- Moral, social, or economic utility of the product.
- Effects of the alternative design on the product.
- Extent to which the alternative design would have prevented or reduced harm.
- New or additional risks created by the alternative design.
What is the ‘state of the art’ defense to a design defect claim?
A manufacturer may avoid liability by proving that, at the time of manufacture, there was no safer alternative design that was technologically and economically feasible.
When is a warning considered inadequate under the LPLA?
A warning is inadequate if the manufacturer fails to warn of known or reasonably foreseeable dangers.
What factors are considered in determining the adequacy of a warning?
- Likelihood and gravity of the harm.
- Feasibility of providing a warning.
- Whether the user could have anticipated the danger.
What are defenses to an inadequate warning claim?
- The danger was open and obvious.
- The manufacturer did not and could not have known of the danger.
- The seller did not pass on the warning.
- The user knew or should have known of the danger.
What is a breach of express warranty under the LPLA?
A breach occurs when the manufacturer makes an express warranty, the product fails to conform to it, and the warranty was untrue, causing damages.
When must the defect have existed to establish liability under the LPLA?
The defect must have existed at the time of manufacture.
What does ‘reasonably anticipated use’ mean in product liability?
The product must have been used in a manner that was foreseeable at the time of manufacture, even if not the intended use.
