Strict Liability and Products Liability Flashcards
Strict Liability
1) Inherently Dangerous activities - blowing stuff up, toxic chemicals
2) Possession of wild animals- (exception for when injury is not type caused by animal/seeing animal)
A defesene to SL is
Assumption of Risk
3 Types of Products Liability
1) Negligence
2) Breach of Warranty
3) Strict products liability
Strict Products Liability
1) Defective product sold by a commercial seller;
2) To a foreseeable user that uses the product in a foreseeable manner
(manufacturing defect/ defective design/ failure to warn_
Two defenses for SPL
1) Assumption of risk
2) Misuse of the product
Virginia does not impose SL on a dog owner
Virginia requires that a dog who has already bitten or attacked people/animals to be
1) securely enclosed and 2) Enclosed when taken out
Failure to do is negligence per se
Virginia does not recognize strict products liability
However, a products liability case can be brought under a negligence or breach of warranty theory
In Virginia, a manufacturer does not have a duty to supply an accident proof product
Instead, the product must be fit for its ordinary purposes for which it is to be used
To win on a negligence theory or a breach of warranty claim caused by a product the P must show
1) The product was unreasonably dangerous, either for the use to which it ordinarily be put or for some other reasonably foreseeable use; and
2) The unreasonable dangerousness of the product existed when the product left the manufacturers hands
A product is unreasonably dangerous when
If its is defective in manufacture, unreasonably dangerous in design, or unaccompanied by adequate warnings,
a manufacturer is liable for foreseeable misuse of product
Lack of privity is not a defense, all that matters is that P was someone who manufacture or seller mights reasonably could expect to use product
If a claim is brought on theory of breach of implied warranty
Seller cannot use contributory negligence or assumption of risk as a defense
