Failure to Warn Lawsuit
In products liability, there is a principle known as “failure to warn”. The core of all products liability law is that products must be reasonably safe for their intended purpose. Products liability law sometimes focuses on the condition of the product itself, and asks “was the product designed and/or manufactured in a way that it is reasonably safe for its intended purpose?”
Some useful products, however, contain certain inherent dangers that cannot be eliminated without making the product less functional. For example, gasoline is extremely flammable, which creates some inherent risk from its use. However, if gasoline were not combustible, it would not be able to power an engine.
This gives rise to a duty to warn consumers of the risks associated with the use of a product. This duty only exists when the manufacturer knew, or should have known, of the risk at the time the product was made.
If a manufacturer does not warn consumers of risks inherent in the use of a product, and a this failure to warn causes injury, the manufacturer may be liable for whatever injuries result. However, to create liability, the person using the product must show that he or she would have followed the warning, if one had existed.
This duty to warn does not apply to dangers that are obvious to the ordinary consumer. For example, kitchen knives are very sharp, and they must be very sharp to perform their intended function properly. This fact means that there is some inherent risk of harm in the use of kitchen knives. However, every ordinary consumer should be aware of this risk, and take steps to minimize it. A manufacturer of kitchen knives would probably not be liable for failure to warn, even if the injured consumer was truly unaware of the fact that they are sharp.
There may also be a duty to warn against the dangers of the product when used for something other than its ordinary purpose, if such use is foreseeable. For example, it is fairly common for people to use chairs as step stools, even though that is not what chairs are designed for. A manufacturer of chairs should know this, and should probably warn consumers that this is not their intended use, and that using them in this manner creates a significant risk of injury.
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Last Modified: 06-29-2009 10:25 AM PDT
