Many businesses, including more than a few small enterprises, rely not merely on a supplier for their goods, but a sometimes rather complicated supply chain leading back to a manufacturer’s component parts supplier. Unfortunately, from time to time, something goes awry in the supply chain that results in a defective product ending up in the hands of consumer.
More often than not, when this occurs, a consumer ends up with something the doesn’t function correctly. Although frustrating for a consumer, the damage that arises in such a situation involves inconvenience and money expended on a product that does not meet expectations.
Unfortunately, there are also situations in which a defective product that proves to be dangerous works its way through the supply chain and ends up in the hands of an unsuspecting consumer. Every year, thousands of people are injured, and even killed, as the result of a defective products that have made their way through supply chains that include a number of parties.
When a consumer is injured because of a defective product, a primary consideration is ascertaining which parties in the supply chain will be deemed responsible for the losses and damages sustained by a consumer. In a situation that involves a defective product sold through a retailer, there tend to be two obvious targets when it comes to holding a party or parties responsible for injuries caused by a defective product. These common targets are the retailer itself as well as the manufacturer. With that noted, in many, many instances, ascertaining all parties in a supply chain who potentially are responsible for a defective product that ends up injuring a consumer can prove to be far more complex than pointing at the retailer and manufacturer.
Proving Liability or Responsibility in a Personal Injury Case
All states in the United States have established the same elements that must be demonstrated in order to hold an individual or some other type of legal entity responsible for injuries sustained because negligence. This includes a personal injury case involving a defective product and a number of different parties that are part of a supply chain.
Duty of Care
The first element that must be demonstrated or proven in a personal injury case is what legally is known as a duty of care. In the case of a consumer product, the various parties in a supply chain have a duty of care to undertake their tasks in the supply chair in a reasonably safe manner. The parts supplier must make sure the components of a product are properly manufactured. Similarly, the manufacturer of a product itself has a duty of exercising reasonable care in the manufacturing process itself.
The assembly of an automobile provides a perfect illustration of the legal duty of each of these two components of a supply chain. for example, the brake manufacturer must exercise all reasonable care in crafting the brake mechanism in the first instance. The company that assembled (or manufactured) the automobile itself must also exercise reasonable care in all aspects of its undertaking, including properly placing the brake system into the motorcar.
Breach of Duty of Care
The second element that must be established in a personal injury case is a breach of the duty of care. In other words, some entity involved in the supply chain does something, or fails to do something, that should reasonably have been undertaken by that entity. This failure to do or not do something in a reasonable manner is a breach of that duty.
Proximate Cause
The third element that must be established in a personal injury case is what legally is known as proximate cause. This is a legal term of art that means the conduct (or inaction) of a party in the supply chain must be both the legal and actual cause of the accident caused by a defective product and the resulting injury to the consumer.
A component of establishing proximate cause is demonstrating that a particular party in the supply chain reasonably could have foreseen the consequence of a particular at (or inaction).
Actual Injury, Damage, or Loss
In order for a consumer to be successful in a personal injury claim or case, he or she must be able to demonstrate that he or she suffered an actual injury, damage, or loss. An alleged injury cannot be something merely speculative in order for a consumer to be successful in pursuing a personal injury claim or case against a party to a supply chain, or against multiple parties associated with a supply chain.
Jessica Kane is a professional blogger who focuses on personal finance and other money matters. She currently writes for Checkworks.com, where you can get personal checks and business checks.