Will PA Expand Products Liability Claims?

Last month, the Third Circuit anticipated that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would abandon Pennsylvania's particularly strict strict liability standard in favor of the standard set forth in the Restatement (Third) of Torts.  In Berrier v. Simplicity Manufacturing, Inc., the Third Circuit considered whether a five-year-old girl who was injured when her grandfather backed over her foot with a riding lawnmower could recover under Pennsylvania’s strict products liability law.  The lawnmower in question was not equipped with back-over protection.

The Third Circuit predicted that, if confronted with the question, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would afford a bystander who was not the intended user of a product a strict liability cause of action to recover for injuries sustained while an intended user was operating the manufacturer’s product.  This outcome is consistent with the Third Restatement position but represents a departure from Pennsylvania state law.

Manufacturers will want to watch what the Pennsylvania Supreme Court does in the pending case, Bugosh v. I.U. North America, Inc., 942 A.2d 897 (Pa. 2008), which presents this very question.