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Hilberg v. F.W. Woolworth Co.3/24/1988
seller and manufacturer was granted over what the court viewed as an obvious attempt to usurp legislative prerogative by the imposition of a judicial ban on handguns.
As here, the plaintiff in Patterson argued for product liability based on the application of the risk-liability test to the product whether or not defective. The court concluded that, under Texas law, there can be no product liability unless the product has a defect and noted that the risk utility test incorporates this essential concept together with the idea that the defect in such a product can be remedied. The court cautioned that the consequence of expanding products liability law to the extent argued by plaintiff would result in a duty arising merely because a product is the factual cause of a particular injury . If there is such a duty, an action could then conceivably be brought against the manufacturer of matches for injuries from a fire caused by such matches, regardless of the intervening circumstances. Similarly, an action could be brought against a manufacturer of automobiles for any and all damages produced by a car involved in an accident. Patterson v. Gesellschaft, supra. It was significant that plaintiff there failed to offer any alternatives for the safer design of guns.
DeRosa v. Remington Arms Co. Inc., 509 F. Supp. 762 (E.D. N.Y. 1981) is instructive on the issue of the magnitude of the burden to guard against injury and the consequences of placing that burden upon a defendant. In DeRosa, the court held that although harm from reasonably foreseeable risks must be prevented, a manufacturer is not an insurer with respect to its product, nor can it protect, by its design choices, against all conceivable misuses and thereby make a product absolutely safe or accident-proof. The court noted that a shotgun, as designed, is not unreasonably dangerous for its intended use.
Based on the foregoing analysis, we hold that the trial court was correct in rejecting each of plaintiffs' claims against F.W. Woolworth Co., Savage Industries, Inc., and William Jack Myers, the Woolworth Company employee, on the basis that, under the undisputed facts, they had not demonstrated any right to recover.
Judgments affirmed.
Disposition
JUDGMENTS AFFIRMED
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