Question # 1: Neal, a twelve-year old boy, buys a pair of skis from Outdoor Outf
ID: 447303 • Letter: Q
Question
Question # 1: Neal, a twelve-year old boy, buys a pair of skis from Outdoor Outfitters (“OO”). He tells the salesperson that he has never been skiing but “he really wants to do it.” The OO salesperson urges Neal to take a lesson in the sport before participating in a run. Neal ignores this advice. On his first run down the intermediate slope he loses control and runs into a tree. He suffers a broken leg, assorted cuts and bruises and he has concussion symptoms. Neal’s parents file a lawsuit against OO alleging that it should not have sold the skis to him when he was clearly too young and inexperienced. Discuss the theory of liability upon which the lawsuit is based and what, if any, defenses OO may raise
Explanation / Answer
The theory of liability is a complicated area of the law which governs who, when and how someone who has been harmed by the use of, or exposure to, a product may receive compensation on the part of the manufacturer, distributor, retail, and restorer of the product.
Types of responsibility:
· Manufacturing defects are those that occur in the manufacturing process, of poor quality materials or poor quality of assembly.
· Design defects occur in product design, it could be dangerous, useless, or does not satisfy the expectations consumed, or product risks are greater than your benefits.
· Lack of warning: inherent dangers that are not obvious, regardless of how well this designed and manufactured the products, which could be minimized if, prior and properly, consumers were warned
There are three main categories of product liability claims, a claimant may submit:
Strict liability; it means that if the product is "defective" and that defect "cause" damage to the plaintiff, the defendant must pay "damages".
Neglect: In negligence, the focus is on the defendant's conduct while on strict liability, the focus is on product failures
Breach of warranty: It refers to the breach of warranty based on the contract.
To realize his defense the defendant must attack the plaintiff´s proofs directly. The theory of the plaintiff, in this case, is negligence of the seller, because he sold the skis to twelve-year old boy. The defendant must prove that the applicant was aware of the danger, which ultimately hurt him and he faced, despite knowing the danger.
The main defense to a negligence lawsuit is to prove that the plaintiff was negligent well. According to this method, the plaintiffs cannot be compensated at 100%, as they are partly to blame for the injury. If the defendant was 99 percent negligent and the plaintiff was one percent negligent, the plaintiff loses.
The accused may also prove that the product has no age restrictions for sale, so it would have no obligation to refuse to complete the sale based on the age of the child.