Law Center Search Results

The NAM filed an amicus brief in the Oregon Supreme Court supporting Ford Motor Company in a lawsuit brought by an Oregon plaintiff alleging that a used car was defective because it had an electrical issue more than eleven years after the original sale date. Oregon’s statue of repose declares that a product is non-defective as a matter of law if it remained in use for ten years without showing a defect. However, a lower court determined that this provision allowed for no statute of repose for a product produced in a state without a statute of repose, such as the Ford car at issue, which makes doing business in Oregon much less attractive for manufacturers. The NAM’s brief argued that the Oregon Supreme Court should reverse the lower court’s statute of repose interpretation because it is contrary to legislative intent and has far-reaching negative implications for any manufacturers doing business in Oregon. The court unfortunately ruled that when the state of manufacture did not have a statute of repose, then there is no governing statute of repose at all.