Product Liability -- 2016



Amato v. Crane Co.   (Pennsylvania Supreme Court)

Standard of liability in failure-to-warn asbestos case

The NAM filed an amicus brief urging the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to adopt modern product liability standards already followed by most other state courts. The issue was what legal standard applies to determine liability in failure to warn cases and whether juries in design defect cases should be allowed to consider whether a product was “unreasonably dangerous.” This litigation increases uncertainty for Pennsylvania manufacturers as to their obligations to warn consumers when products are not unreasonably dangerous. The NAM’s brief argued that juries should be permitted to consider what a manufacturer knew about a particular danger in strict liability failure to warn cases as is allowed in modern product liability standards followed by a majority of state courts. Unfortunately, the court dismissed the appeal and did not reach a decision.


Related Documents:
NAM brief  (March 14, 2016)