Florida Law
Florida Personal Injury Defense Law: Products Liability
Personal Injury Defense Law: Products Liability
Kinds of Defects
Defective Warning
A manufacturer has a duty to provide adequate instructions for the safe use of its product and must warn buyers of any dangers associated with the product. If such warnings are not present, the manufacturer may be liable for injuries caused by the product. Manufacturers have a duty to perform safety tests to determine what warning labels need to be put on a product. These tests should simulate conditions under which the product would ordinarily be used. For example, the manufacturer of a hand-held electric hair dryer must anticipate that its product might be used above a sink full of water, and therefore must warn buyers that dropping the product in water may lead to electrocution. However, a warning label need not be put on an obviously dangerous product, such as a kitchen knife.
Although some states impose a post-sale duty to warn on manufacturers, in Florida there is no continuing duty on manufacturers to warn consumers of a newly discovered danger after a product has been sold.
Design Defect
In most product liability cases the plaintiff attempts to prove that a design defect caused an injury. Sometimes products are built exactly as designed, but are dangerous because of poor engineering, inadequate testing, or poor choice of construction materials. A manufacturer is negligent if it fails to take reasonable care to ensure that a product is designed to perform safely. For example, the design of the ill-fated Ford Pintos resulted in an increased risk of fire in a collision. Companies must make sure their products are safe when they are used in the intended way, as well as in unintended, but foreseeable, ways. If a manufacturer cannot eliminate a danger from a product, or install a guard to protect a user from the danger, then the manufacturer must warn the user of the danger.
Manufacturing Defect
This type of defect occurs when a product is designed well but, because of a flaw in the manufacturing process, it fails to meet the specifications contained in the design. For example, a motorcycle manufacturer may have designed a gasoline tank for its motorcycles that exceeds all safety standards, but it contracts the production of the tanks to a company that uses sub-standard hardware. If a leaking gas tank causes a fire, then the manufacturer could be liable for injuries caused by the manufacturing defect.
Types of Product Liability Claims
Strict Liability
Strict liability holds a manufacturer liable for injuries sustained by a person using its product, if the product is found to be unreasonably dangerous. To prove a case based on strict liability, a plaintiff must show that a manufacturer's product was in a defective condition that made it unreasonably dangerous to the user. In addition, the defect must be the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury. The statute of limitations in Florida for product liability lawsuits based on strict liability is four years from the date of the injury.
Negligence
Product liability lawsuits can allege negligence when a manufacturer fails to exercise the care that would be exercised by a reasonable manufacturer in the same or similar situation. While strict liability focuses on the manufactured product, negligence theory focuses on the conduct of the manufacturer. A manufacturer who implements very strict production controls designed to ensure that products are made properly may be able to avoid committing negligence, because all due care was taken that reasonably could be expected.
Florida, like some other states, has laws that under certain conditions allow a plaintiff to collect damages from companies that distribute or sell defective products, even if the company did not design, test, or manufacture the product. If distributors or sellers knew that a product was defective but did nothing to keep it from reaching consumers, they could be held liable for damages. In addition, a distributor who damages a product can be held liable for any injuries this causes, and a retailer who incorrectly assembles or installs a product also can be sued. The statute of limitations in Florida for product liability lawsuits based on negligence typically is four years from the date of the injury.
Wrongful Death
A wrongful death lawsuit is filed by the surviving relatives of a person killed by a defective product. Although wrongful death lawsuits can be filed in other types of personal injury cases such as automobile accidents, the theory often is associated with product liability cases. Under Florida law, the decedent's survivors and estate may bring a lawsuit for wrongful death. Survivors include the decedent's spouse, children, and parents. Each survivor may recover for loss of the decedent's support or services. Additionally, the surviving spouse and minor children (or all children if there is no surviving spouse), may recover for loss of the decedent's companionship and protection. They also may recover for pain and suffering. The estate can recover for the decedent's lost earnings from the date of injury until the date of death, and funeral and medical expenses if they were paid by the estate. Florida does not recognize a cause of action for wrongful death of a viable fetus, that is, one that would be capable of surviving outside the mother's womb.
Products Liability Lawsuits Based on Breach of Warranty
Whenever a person purchases a product, a contract has been formed. Sometimes that contract includes express warranties; it almost always includes implied warranties. An express warranty arises when a manufacturer makes some affirmation or promise about a product that is relied upon by the buyer. The terms of an express warranty are whatever is agreed to by the parties. An implied warranty is a warranty implied by Florida law on the sale of goods. Under Florida's implied warranty, all goods (broadly defined as tangible, movable things) that are sold must be generally fit for their intended purpose. If a product is not generally fit for its intended purpose or if it does not meet the terms of its express warranty and a person is injured by the product, that person may sue the manufacturer for breach of warranty.
Unlike negligence, breach of warranty lawsuits do not involve proof of fault. Instead, a plaintiff must show evidence of a product's failure to meet the terms of either its express or implied warranty. This evidence will be similar to the "defective product" evidence necessary in a strict liability or negligence case. One characteristic unique to breach of warranty lawsuits is the possibility of recovery for economic loss. While plaintiffs in strict liability and negligence product liability lawsuits can recover compensatory and punitive damages related to the injury, they cannot recover the costs of repairing or replacing the defective product. A plaintiff in a breach of warranty lawsuit may recover such costs, in addition to compensatory or punitive damages.
Resources
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, D.C. 20207-0001, (301) 504-0580, has information about product safety and particular products.