Multi-Million Dollar Verdict in Missouri Highlights Dangerous Products

October 13, 2012

Every day - in work and at home - Missourians use products manufactured by dozens, if not hundreds, of manufacturers. Most of the time, they simply trust that manufacturers create and design these products with sufficient expertise and skill that they will be safe to use, or if there is some danger associated with its use, that the manufacturer will provide appropriate warnings of these dangers. Unfortunately when manufacturers fail to adhere to these basic duties and produce unsafe or defective products, consumers can be severely injured, and in some cases, killed.

The severity of these types of injuries was illustrated by a recent Missouri jury verdict out of Jackson County. In this case, a Kansas City HVAC technician was electrocuted at work after coming into contact with exposed live wiring on a heat pump. The immense electric shock threw the technician from his ladder and he landed on the corner of a table as he plummeted to the floor.

Following the accident, the technician filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the heat pump raising various claims that the heat pump was defectively designed and had insufficient warnings. After apportioning fault, the jury in the case ultimately returned a verdict of $9.97 million in favor of the technician and his wife - including $4.5 million in punitive damages.

The Kansas City Business Journal reported that one of the attorneys representing the technician, Brian Meyers, stated the case was especially difficult to win given that the defendant in the case had argued the technician should not have been working on the heat pump with the power on. Thankfully for the technician, the jury ultimately apportioned more fault to the defendant manufacturer.

Products Liability in Missouri

In Missouri, when consumers and employees are injured by dangerous products, they need to know what their possible remedies are. In the legal community, these types of claims are more commonly known as "products liability" claims.

In Missouri, products liability claims are specifically actions for injuries caused by defective products or products that may not be defective but are unreasonably dangerous without adequate warnings. Generally, these types of actions fall into following categories: negligent design or manufacture, negligent failure to warn and strict liability.

In order to prove a strict liability case in Missouri for a defective product, a victim must be able to show the following:
- The defendant sold the product in the course of their business
- The product was in a defective condition at the time of sale and was unreasonably dangerous when put to a reasonably anticipated use
- The product was actually used in a way reasonably anticipated
- The victim was damaged or injured as a direct result of the defective condition that existed at the time of sale

In addition, a strict liability claim in Missouri under the failure to warn doctrine includes the following elements:
- The defendant sold the product in the course of their business
- The product was unreasonably dangerous when put to a reasonably anticipated use without knowledge of its characteristics
- The defendant failed to give adequate warnings of the dangers associated with the product
- The product was actually used in a way reasonably anticipated
- The victim was damaged or injured as a result of the product being sold without proper warnings

Obviously the law in Missouri surrounding defective products is quite extensive and complex, meaning this article barely scratches the surface of products liability law. Thus, if you have been injured by a defective product it is important to contact an experienced products liability attorney to be advised of your rights and options.

Article provided by The Law Offices of Brian Timothy Meyers
Visit us at www.btm-law.com