The United States Supreme Court has ruled for the plaintiffs in a case involving an assertion of federal pre-emption in litigation involving whether selling "light" cigarettes was deceptive. As pointed out in this article in the New York Times, "[t]he question before the court was not whether use of the…
The Insurance Institute for HIghway Safety has announced its TOP SAFETY PICKS for 2009. The picks " recognize[ ] vehicles that do the best job of protecting people in front, side, and rear crashes based on good ratings in Institute tests. Winners also have to have electronic stability control (ESC),…
Paul Luvera is a highly-regarded trial lawyer from Seattle. His blog has this great post on slogans (read: themes) for trying product liability cases for the plaintiff.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has released the opinion in Flax. Stated briefly, the Court affirmed the dismissal of the NIED claim and re-instated the remitted punitive damages for the wrongful death claim. For the first time in my memory, the TSC released 4 opinions on the case. Get the links to…
Vehicle rollovers result in a significant number of fatalities every year, and there has been a vigorous debate about the roll that roof strength plays in those deaths. Now, a new study from the Insurance Institute for HIghtway Safety reveals that stronger roofs would save lives. The study concludes as…
The Tennessee Court of Appeals (Middle Section) has released an opinion in a products liability case. As I have before, such decisions are few and far between and we can learn from everyone of them. This decision is particularly important because it was authored by Judge (now Justice) Bill Koch. …
There are relatively few products liability cases filed in Tennessee, very few actually tried, and even fewer appealed. So, when a products case hits the appellate courts, we all learn. And when evidence issues are discussed in a product liability opinion there is cause for absolute jubilation. Sparks v. Mena held…
General Mills Operations, a Wellston, Ohio, establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately 3.3 million pounds of frozen meat pizza products because they may be contaminated with E. coli and may be linked to an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced…
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide "whether federal law pre-empts the product liability claims that diabetes patients filed in Michigan state court against pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert & Co." Read more here.
Ordinarily, product manufacturers have a duty to make and sell products that are reasonably safe and not defective. If that is not reasonably possible, then the manufacturer has a duty to warn about defects or danger. The learned intermediary doctrine says that drug manufacturers owe no duty to warn consumers about…