Product liability and warranties - Business law Tom Anderson, the produce manage

Question

Product liability and warranties - Business law

Tom Anderson, the produce manager at the Thriftway Market in Pasco, Washington, removed a box of bananas from the top of a stack of produce. When he reached for a lug of radishes that had been under the bananas, a six-inch spider—Heteropoda venatoria, commonly called a banana spider—leaped from some wet burlap onto his left hand and bit him. Nine months later he died of heart failure. His wife brought an action against Associated Grocers, parent company of Thriftway Market, on theories of (1) strict products liability under Restatement, Section 402(a); (2) breach of the implied warranty of merchantability; and (3) negligence. The trial court ruled against the plaintiff on all three theories. Was that a correct ruling? Explain.

Explanation / Answer

The first two theories do not hold because there was no evidence that could prove that the spider caused the defects in the bananas thereby making it unfit for human consumption, which is an underlying condition for the first two theories. The spider was found in the wet burlap and not on the bananas itself that could make the product defective and not fit for sale either. Therefore the doctrine of strict liability as well as the implied warranty of merchantability in this case cannot be proven to have been breached.

Moreover, neither the product, here, banana, was faulty not there was any need of warning Tom Anderson about the usage and consumption of the same. Hence Thriftway Market could not be even proven to be negligent while selling the bananas to Tom Anderson. Therefore, even negligence cannot be considered in the above case.

Therefore, the court ruling is correct.

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