Best Herbals, Inc. Best Herbals, Inc., sells natural remedy medicines. Although
ID: 418858 • Letter: B
Question
Best Herbals, Inc.
Best Herbals, Inc., sells natural remedy medicines. Although the company is aware that its diet pills pose a risk of heart damage, the company decides not to update its product label warning because it is too costly and may damage sales. As a result of Best Herbal’s business decision, one of its consumers, Tonya, suffers a heart attack after ingesting the diet pills. Tonya eventually recovers from the heart attack, but her hospitalization causes her to miss two weeks of work.
In this scenario, Best Herbals, Inc., owes a duty to warn consumers of possible side effects associated with its products. The company breached its duty by failing to warn its customers of possible side effects. It is foreseeable that a customer would be injured by the lack of a warning. The harm Tonya suffered was a direct result of the company’s breach. Best Herbals, Inc., must compensate Tonya for her injury (heart attack) and damages incurred (hospital bill and lost wages).
As this lesson’s media on video game violence illustrates, actual causation is one of the most difficult negligence elements to prove. The plaintiff must show that the defendant’s act or omission was the cause in fact of the harm suffered by the plaintiff. That is, the plaintiff must establish that “but for” the defendant’s action or inaction, the plaintiff would not have been harmed. In the case of video games, causation is difficult to prove because of conflicting research about the impact video games have on kids.
Explain the elements of negligence and why the plaintiffs felt the defendants were negligent.
Why did the appeals court rule in favor of the defendants in this case?
In your opinion, do you believe the defendants owed a duty of care to the plaintiffs? Explain your viewpoint.
Explanation / Answer
The elements of negligence include duty, breach of duty, actual cause, proximity cause and damages. In this case Best Herbals had the duty to warn the customers that the diet pills may cause the risk of heart damage. But they breached that duty by deciding not to update the label to avoid extra cost and sales damage. Tonya suffered from heart attack after ingesting the diet pills and hence it satisfies the element of actual causation for plaintiff. The element of proximity cause requires that the injury resulting from the negligent action should be foreseeable for the defendant; else the negligence claim will not exist. According to plaintiff, the company was aware of the fact that the product may pose heart damage and hence the element of proximity cause also is present. As a result of the Best Herbals’ failure to exercise reasonable care in updating the label, Tonya has suffered heart attack and missed two weeks of work apart from the hospital expense. Hence the damages also are clearly evident in this case. As the case satisfies all the elements of negligence, the plaintiffs felt that the defendants were negligent.
The appeals court ruled in favor of the defendants due to the difficulty in proving actual causation. Though Tonya suffered from heart attack after the consumption of diet pills, there can be other factors that may lead to the heart damage. Actual causation must prove that ‘but for’ the wrongful act by Best Herbals, the injury would not have occurred which is difficult here to prove.
Yes, in my opinion, the defendants owed a duty of care to the plaintiffs and they should have warned the customers about the risk of heart damage. Customers buy the products trusting the manufacturers and believing that it would be safe to use. This trust imposes duty of care on the part of manufacturers while manufacturing and selling the product and the manufacturers who fail to exercise duty of care in warning about the product risks should undergo strict liability.
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