Strict Products Liability: The Implied Warranty of Safety, and Negligence with Hindsight as Tests of Defect

It has been thirty years since Justice Roger Traynor, concurring in Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co., first enunciated the rule and rationale of strict products liability. Almost twenty years elapsed before his brethren joined him in Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc. to make strict liability the rule, at least for personal injuries to consumers which are caused by defective products. Understanding the concept of a defective product, applying and defining its limits, remain major problems, however, despite all that has occurred in the decade that has now passed since Greenman. It is the thesis of this article that the guidelines are now sufficiently clear and are ready for better definition and easier application. We shall attempt to do so