• Child Craft (out of business)
• Delta Enterprise Corp of New York, NY
• Evenflo of Miamisburg, OH
• Jardine Enterprises of Taipei, Taiwan
• LaJobi of Cranbury, N.J.
• Million Dollar Baby of Montebello, Calif.
• Simmons Juvenile Products, Inc. of New London, Wis.
   

Apparently, drop down cribs have a long history of problems and are known to be less structurally sound than four fixed side cribs.  In the last 5 years, more than 9 million drop down cribs have been recalled from the market.  They are also more suscetible to age related wear and tear and incorrect assembly than the fixed side cribs.

If you want to know more about crib safety, go to JPMA Crib Safety.

We have quoted and placed many product liability policies for custom motorcycle manufactures and when compared to similar size businesses in different industries, one common thread among custom motorcycle manufactures – this group is more likely to roll the dice and not to carry product liability insurance.

This is why I was drawn to the article,  Syracuse Product Liability Trial Underway Against Big Bear American Made Choppers.  Custom motorcycle manufactures should to take notice of the facts of this product liability case and just how quickly a product liability claim can happen.  Fact one, this accident was caused by just two screws that apparently vibrated out of the front fender causing the fender to contact with and lock the front tire of the motorcycle.  Fact two, the injury was real.  The plaintiff ended up having his right leg amputated above the knee.  Fact three, it took three years of discovery before this product liability case was resolved.  I do not have all the facts regarding discovery, but three years implies hundreds of man-hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars were invested to comply and respond to discovery requests.

I do understand that sometimes economics dictate that not everybody can afford insurance; however, when the failure of your product can result in loss of life or serious injury, you have a higher obligation to those that buy your products and you should carry product liability insurance.

With the custom motorcycle manufactures, I believe there is a macho attitude and rationalization that in their minds they believe a person should not buy a motorcycle if that person is not willing to take a risk.  However, I think most custom motorcycle manufactures will find that most riders will accept responsibility for risking their own lives (e.g. driving too fast or not wearing helmets), but will quickly sue when they believe your product was responsible putting them at unexpected or unintended risk.

First of all, strict liability requires no burden of proof that negligence exists. It only has to be proven that the product was the approximate cause of the bodily injury or property damage and that the product defect was a result of a design defect, manufacturing defect, improper warning or improper instruction.   Secondly, when a plaintiff brings a product liability lawsuit, they are not required to make a choice between design defect, manufacturing defect or failure to warn defect and may elect to use all theories to support their case.

Prior to 1963, injured parties had the burden of proof that negligence existed in order to be compensated for their injuries.  After 1963, due to the Strict Liability doctrine, the costs of injuries shifted to those who market the products – the manufacture, wholesaler, distributor and retailers. 

Basically, the logic behind Strict Liability is that the manufacturers, distributors and retailers of a product that causes bodily injury or property damage are more responsible than the consumer that was injured or suffered a loss and are in a better position financially to accept the burden of making the consumer whole again.

The data collection system can be something as simple as a sheet of paper that asks for name of the customer, address, phone numbers, fax numbers, email and nature of the problem or it could be one of the many available complaint management software’s available to businesses.

After you have collected the data, it is to your benefit to quickly identify the nature of the problem. If the problem is a manufacturing defect it may involve immediately halting production and identifying which batches of the product that were affected. If is was a design defect, you would want to halt production immediately and try to halt all potential shipments and recall any products with your customers. If it was a warning label or instruction defect, it may involve creating updating warning labels or instructions and repackaging existing products and sending new labels and instructions to your customers so they can attach or include with your products.  

Of course, these examples above are over simplifications, but you get the idea that without the data collection of complaints, you may be too slow to take any steps and find your self involved with a full blown product recall involving one of the federal agencies responsible for product safety.

Only through collection of customer complaints can you start to identify the defect or safety issue early enough so that hopefully you can address and solve the problems before the federal policing agencies such as Consumer Product Safety Commission; Food and Drug Administration; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; Food Safety and inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Environmental Protection Agency; Federal Aviation Adminstration; and U.S. Coast Guard have to get involved.

Once one of the federal policing organizations get involved, you face potential fines or jail time for non-compliance and huge financial expense to comply with all the necessary steps and regulation for an effective product recall.

Unless that foreign manufacturer’s policy has a worldwide endorsement that specifically states it will cover product liability claims in the U.S. courts, that foreign product liability policy is useless to the importer. 

The fact is the importer is at the top of the pyramid when it comes to responsibility to ensure that any products brought into the U.S. are safe for use by the American public.  This is why it is common for importers to be classified as manufactures for insurance rating purposes by the product liability insurance carriers because any product liability claims involving manufacturing defect will stop with the importer. 

So if you are an importer, do not assume that, even if the foreign manufacturer has a product liability policy, that the manufacturer has your back or will be responsible for any product liability claims brought in the U.S. involving your imported products.  It is more than likely you are on your own to handle any and all product liability claims.