Sportslaw Jargon: Products Liability

Products Liability involves the responsibility of manufacturers and sellers to compensate buyers, users and even bystanders for damages or injuries suffered because of defects in goods purchased. A general tort law concept, products liability has been applied to cases involving defects in the manufacturing of sporting goods, especially football and hockey equipment.

The key to products liability is that the manufacturer or seller will be liable even if they are not at fault. They inherent dangerousness of the design or the lack of a proper warning would be enough to trigger this legal theory. The key is that the defect must make the product "unreasonably dangerous" to the user or consumer.

This standard was proposed in the 1950s to protect users from products that was dangerous by making it easier to prove responsibility. Hence, it was a "strict liability" concept, rather than one based on more traditional negligence, which requires fault to be shown. By the mid-1960s, almost every state accepted the standard.

One well known case which involves products liability is Burns v. Riddell, Inc, a 1976 case from Arizona. A player sued the manufacturer of his football helmet after a head injury during a game. The court defined the scope of "unreasonable dangerousness" as whether a reasonable manufacturer would continue to market the product in the same condition as he sold it to Burns with knowledge of the potential dangerous consequences the trial just revealed. In other words, the item must be dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by the ordinary consumer who purchases it with the ordinary knowledge common to the community.

It is a very subjective test, calling for discretion by a court.