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In re Shigellosis Litigation6/18/2002
ecause the summary judgment may have precluded the reinstatement process under section 544.41, we construe both claims as an appeal from summary judgment. When we review a grant of summary judgment, we determine whether there are any genuine issues of material fact and whether the district court erred in its application of the law. Wallin v. Letourneau, 534 N.W.2d 712, 715 (Minn. 1995).
The Minnesota Supreme Court adopted the concept of strict tort liability against the manufacturer of a defective product in McCormack v. Hankscraft Co., 278 Minn. 322, 333-34, 154 N.W.2d 488, 497-98 (1967). Three years later, the court clarified that an injured person may also maintain an action for strict liability in tort against the commercial seller of a defective product, even if the seller has no active fault or negligence. Farr v. Armstrong Rubber Co., 288 Minn. 83, 89, 179 N.W.2d 64, 68 (1970) (citing Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A (1965) (stating commercial seller who sells defective product is liable for physical harm even if seller is not negligent and not in privity with the injured person)).
Strict liability in tort developed from strong public-policy considerations to protect consumers from harm caused by defective products and to impose the cost of defective products on the maker, who presumably profits from the product. See McCormack, 278 Minn. at 338, 154 N.W.2d at 500; Lee v. Crookston Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 290 Minn. 321, 327-28, 188 N.W.2d 426, 431-32 (1971). A key rationale for strict liability in tort is a "risk bearing economic" theory in which merchants and manufacturers have the capacity to distribute their losses among the many purchasers of the product. W. Page Keeton and Dan B. Dobbs, Prosser and Keeton on Torts § 98, at 692-93 (5th ed. 1984).
The effect of these strict-liability principles can be harsh on a commercial seller who does not control the design or manufacture of the product and who does not know or have reason to know of the defect. See, e.g., Marcon v. Kmart Corp., 573 N.W.2d 728, 730-31 (Minn. App. 1998), review denied (Minn. April 14, 1998) (holding commercial seller with no causal fault responsible, under strict-liability principles, for all causal fault of the manufacturer).
The practical effect of strict-liability principles is to hold a faultless seller jointly and severally liable for the causal fault of the manufacturer. See Hudson v. Snyder Body, Inc. 326 N.W.2d 149, 158 (Minn. 1982) (Simonett, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (describing strict liability of an inert seller as "vicarious" or "derivative" rather than comparative). But the faultless seller can seek and recover indemnity from the defect-causing party in the product's chain of distribution. See Farr, 288 Minn. at 96-97, 179 N.W.2d at 72 (noting a passive-middleman retailer may recover indemnity from the manufacturer who furnished the defective product); see also Tolbert, 255 N.W.2d at 366-67 (noting common law indemnity shifts entire loss from a party who has no personal fault, but is nevertheless liable in tort, to the at-fault party).
The seller's-exception statute, Minn. Stat. § 544.41, tempers the harsh effect of strict liability as it applies to passive sellers, while ensuring that a person injured by a defective product can recover from a viable source. The seller's-exception statute permits dismissal of strict-liability claims against a seller of a defective product who certifies the correct identity of the manufacturer, but only after a complaint is filed against the manufacturer. Minn. Stat. § 544.41, subds. 1, 2. The seller may not be dismissed, however, if it has played an active role in creating the product defect or had actual k
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