Proving New Jersey Product Liability and Negligence

Along a product’s production and supply chain are many people who have a responsibility to ensure the product’s safety or communicate to the consumer its dangers if those dangers are known. Here we look more closely at the legal duties of the various parties who New Jersey product liability and negligence claims can be filed against.

Manufacturer: One who supplies a New Jersey product directly or through a third person has a duty to use reasonable care to give warning of the dangerous condition of the product or of facts which make it likely to be dangerous to those whom the supplier expects to use the product. A failure to fulfill that duty is considered negligence, which is an angle that a New Jersey product liability attorney can pursue. Lear more about design defect liability.

Duty of maker or a component part: The maker of a component part which is incorporated into a product finished or assembled by another has the same duty of care as to such component parts as that of a manufacturer.

When seller assumes role of manufacturer: A seller who puts out as its own a product manufactured by another has the same duty of care as that of a manufacturer.

Seller’s duty: One who sells in the usual course of trading a New Jersey product which was made by another, does not have a duty to inspect or test the product for possible defects. However, a seller who has reason to know that the product is likely to be dangerously defective, has a duty to exercise reasonable care to inspect and test the product before selling it to another.

When personal property is transferred: When one gives possession and the right to use personal property to another and the latter agrees to return the same property to him at a future time, the transaction is known in law as a bailment. The person who gives possession is known as a bailor. The person who takes possession is known as a bailee.

Duty of bailor when delivering personal property in bailment: One who delivers possession of a New Jersey article to another has a duty to warn such other person of any dangerous condition of the article of which the one delivering possession has knowledge and which would constitute a danger to person or property if such other person were not so informed. A failure to fulfill that duty is New Jersey product liability negligence.

When bailment benefits both parties: The bailor has a duty to those whom he or she should expect to use the property, or be endangered by its probable use, to use reasonable care to make it safe for use.

However, when the bailment is entirely for the benefit of the bailee, the bailor has a duty to use reasonable care to warn the bailee and those whom he or she should expect to use the property, of any defects actually known to the bailor which make the property dangerous for the purpose for which it is ordinarily used. He or she is not liable for defects of which he or she was not aware.

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