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Welcome to Products Liability!

I strongly recommend that you create case briefs in the format specified.

Products Liability Generally

Class 01 (Thursday, January 7)

Class 02 (Monday, January 11)

1. Silivanch v. Celebrity Cruises, Inc., 171 F. Supp. 2d 241 (S.D.N.Y. 2001)

Class 03 (Tuesday, January 12)

1. Products liability theories
2. After you have read this introduction, (a) carefully organize what you have already learned, in your other courses, about these theories and (b) briefly research any concepts that are still unfamiliar.

The Development of Strict Products Liability

Class 04 (Thursday, January 14)

1. Albert L. Clough, The Question of Axles, The Horseless Age (November 6, 1901) [1]
2. MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co., 111 N.E. 1050 (N.Y. 1916)
3. Gregory Travis, How the Boeing 737 Max Disaster Looks to a Software Developer, IEEE Spectrum (April 18, 2019) [2]

Class 05 (Tuesday, January 19)

1. Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co., 140 P.2d 107 (Cal. Ct. App. 1943)
2. Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co., 150 P.2d 436 (Cal. 1944)
3. Henningsen v. Bloomfield Motors, Inc., 161 A.2d 69 (N.J. 1960)
4. Greenman v. Yuba Power Prod., Inc., 377 P.2d 897 (Cal. 1963)

Class 06 (Thursday, January 21)

1. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A (1965) (including the comment)
2. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402B (1965) (including the comment)
3. Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability § 1 (1998) (including the comment)
4. Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability § 2 (1998) (excluding the comment)

The Scope of Strict Products Liability

NEXT YEAR ADD THE DISTRICT COURT OPINION AND ANY RECENT SUBSEQUENT OPINIONS!!!! Class 07 (Monday, January 25)

1. Oberdorf v. Amazon.com Inc., 930 F.3d 136 (3d Cir. 2019)
2. Oberdorf v. Amazon.com Inc., 936 F.3d 182 (3d Cir. 2019)
3. Oberdorf v. Amazon.com Inc., 818 F. App'x 138 (3d Cir. 2020)
4. Oberdorf v. Amazon.com, Inc., 237 A.3d 394 (Pa. 2020)
5. Amazon.com Conditions of Use (May 21, 2018) [3]

Class 08 (Tuesday, January 26)

1. Recall Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A comment f (1965)
2. Iowa Code Ann. § 613.18
3. Council Directive 85/374/EEC [4]
4. Prepare arguments

Class 09 (Thursday, January 28)

1. Torres v. City of Madera, No. CIVFF02-6385AWILJO, 2005 WL 1683736 (E.D. Cal. July 11, 2005)
2. Torres v. Taser Int'l, Inc., 277 F. App'x 684 (9th Cir. 2008)
3. Menkes v. 3M Co., No. CV 17-0573, 2018 WL 2298620 (E.D. Pa. May 21, 2018)

Class 10 (Monday, February 1)

1. Devin N. Perkins et al., E-Waste: A Global Hazard, Annals of Global Hazard, Annals of Global Health (2014) [5]
2. European Commission, Ship recycling: Reducing human and environmental impacts (2016) [6]
3. In re Old Carco LLC, 587 B.R. 809 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2018)
4. Timothy B. Lee, The Heartbleed Bug, Explained, Vox (May 14, 2015) [7]

NEXT YEAR ADD R3D SECTION 8 (SELLERS OF USED PRODUCTS)

Manufacturing Defects

Class 11 (Tuesday, February 2)

1. Welge v. Planters Lifesavers Co., 17 F.3d 209 (7th Cir. 1994)
2. Recall Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A comment f (1965)
3. Recall Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability § 2(a) (1998)
4. Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability § 3 (1998)
5. Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability § 7 (1998)
6. McKenzie v. S K Hand Tool Corp., 650 N.E.2d 612 (Ill. 1995)
7. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Average Age of Automobiles and Trucks in Operation in the United States [8]

Design Defects

Class 12 (Monday, February 8)

1. Calles v. Scripto-Tokai Corp., 864 N.E.2d 249 (Ill. 2007)
2. Gen. Motors Corp. v. Farnsworth, 965 P.2d 1209 (Alaska 1998)

Class 13 (Tuesday, February 9)

1. Batts v. Tow-Motor Forklift Co., 978 F.2d 1386 (5th Cir. 1992)
2. Sperry-New Holland, a Div. of Sperry Corp. v. Prestage, 617 So. 2d 248 (Miss. 1993)
3. Miss. Code. Ann. § 11-1-63
4. Smith v. Mack Trucks, Inc., 819 So. 2d 1258 (Miss. 2002)

THIS IMPLICATES OPEN AND OBVIOUS DANGERS

Class 14 (Thursday, February 11)

1. Barker v. Lull Eng'g Co., 573 P.2d 443 (Cal. 1978)
2. Soule v. Gen. Motors Corp., 882 P.2d 298 (Cal. 1994)

Class 15 (Monday, February 15) SKIPPED: Leichtamer v. Am. Motors Corp., 424 N.E.2d 568 (Ohio 1981) -- SKIP THIS CASE??? It's about consumer expectations

1. Nesselrode v. Exec. Beechcraft, Inc., 707 S.W.2d 371 (Mo. 1986)
2. What does South Carolina do?
3. What does another state of your choice do?
4. David G. Owen, Design Defects, 73 Mo. L. Rev. 291 (2008) [9] (excluding footnotes)

USE SOME HYPOS TO MAKE THESE DIFFERENCES CONCRETE!! USING THESE FACTS, ARGUE FOR THE PLAINTIFF / FOR THE DEFENDANT. NOW CHANGE THE FACTS....

Class 16 (Tuesday, February 16) For each of our cases to date:

1. Consider which party would benefit from an examination of alternative designs
2. Identify at least one alternative design
3. Argue that this alternative design (a) would have prevented or lessened the plaintiff's harm and (b) would not have prevented or lessened the plaintiff's harm
4. Argue that this alternative design (a) is reasonable and (b) is not reasonable

including subsequent remedial measures

Class 17 (Thursday, February 18) Risk, foreseeability, Wade-Keeton, time, and state of the art

1. Recall Gen. Motors Corp. v. Farnsworth, 965 P.2d 1209 (Alaska 1998)
2. Andrew Sheldon, A Seat Belt History Timeline (November 13, 2020) [10]
3. Grover v. Eli Lilly & Co., 591 N.E.2d 696 (Ohio 1992)

Class 18 (Monday, February 22)

Class 19 (Thursday, February 25)

Class 20 (Monday, March 1)

Class 21 (Tuesday, March 2)

misuse Class 22 (Thursday, March 4) crashworthiness here!!! ADD RESTATEMENT (THIRD) LANGUAGE FOR DESIGN DEFECTS GENERALLY HERE!!!!

Regulatory and private standards Class 23

Preemption Class 24

Cost-benefit analysis Class 25

Confidentiality Class 26

Automated driving Class 27

Information Defects

Class 28

1. Olson v. Prosoco, Inc., 522 N.W.2d 284 (Iowa 1994)
2. Nowak By & Through Nowak v. Faberge, U.S.A., Inc., 812 F. Supp. 492 (M.D. Pa. 1992)
3. Mason v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., 596 F.3d 387 (7th Cir. 2010)

Foreseeability of Risks Class 29

1. Beshada v. Johns-Manville Prod. Corp., 447 A.2d 539 (N.J. 1982)
2. Feldman v. Lederle Labs., 97 N.J. 429, 479 A.2d 374 (1984)

Form Class 30

1. Roman v. Sprint Nextel Corp., No. 12-CV-276 VEC, 2014 WL 5870743 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 13, 2014)
2. Amanda J. Pooley et al., Social Referencing “Mr. Yuk”: The Use of Emotion in a Poison Prevention Program, Journal of Pediatric Psychology (2010) [11]
3. Ramirez v. Plough, Inc., 6 Cal. 4th 539 P.2d 167 (1993)
4. Henry v. Gen. Motors Corp., 60 F.3d 1545 (11th Cir. 1995)
5. 40 C.F.R. § 191.14(c)

[nuclear semiotics]

Bulk Suppliers, Crowdsourcing, and the Communications Decency Act Class 31

1. Macrie v. SDS Biotech Corp., 267 N.J. Super. 34, 630 A.2d 805 (App. Div. 1993)

....

Post-Sale Obligations

Class 32

1. Lovick v. Wil-Rich, 588 N.W.2d 688 (Iowa 1999)
2. Proximity-Driven Liability ....

Tesla OTA updates

Cause-in-Fact

Class 33

1. Johnson v. Am. Standard, Inc., 43 Cal. 4th 56, 179 P.3d 905 (2008)
2. Maia Szalavitz, 10 Ways We Get the Odds Wrong, Psychology Today (January 1, 2008), psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200801/10-ways-we-get-the-odds-wrong
3. Eric Horowitz, Why Are People Bad at Evaluating Risks?, Psychology Today (March 1, 2013), psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-inertia-trap/201303/why-are-people-bad-evaluating-risks
4. Christopher Henry, Death by Dicta: The Life of The Sophisticated User Doctrine in South Carolina Products Liability Law, 69 S.C. L. Rev. 1039
5. .... How would you analyze cause-in-fact for each claim in each major case you have read so far .....

Scope of Liability

Class 34

Damages

Class 35

1. East River Steamship Corp. v. Transamerica Delaval, 476 U.S. 858 (1986)
2. Dean v. Barrett Homes, Inc., 8 A.3d 766 (N.J. 2010)

Affirmative Defenses

Conduct-Based: Class 36 (South Carolina case on comparative fault vis-a-vis SPL)

Class 37 (finish conduct-based); reference statutes of repose, government contractor, and all the torts affirmative defenses, etc.

Summary

Class 38

1. Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability § 2 (1998) (including the comment)
2. Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability (1998) in its entirety (comments optional)

Prescription Drugs Class 39