Strict product liability in Florida

Elements

1. 1

   Defendant in the chain

   The defendant designed, manufactured, or sold the product in the stream of commerce.

2. 2

   Defect

   The product was defective in design, manufacture, or warning when it left the defendant’s control.

3. 3

   Causation

   The defect caused the plaintiff’s injury while the product was used in a reasonably foreseeable way.

4. 4

   Damages

   Physical harm or, in some jurisdictions, specified economic loss.

Burden of proof

Preponderance of the evidence. The plaintiff generally does not have to prove negligence, but must prove a defect.

A Florida fact pattern

A Naples homeowner’s pressure cooker lid blows during a Saturday stew. The design used a plastic interlock that fatigues after a few hundred cycles. She does not have to prove the company was careless in the negligence sense; she has to prove the product was defective when sold and that the defect caused the burns. The Amazon third-party seller and the overseas manufacturer may both sit in the chain.