The IPLA subjects a manufacturer of “a product or a component part of a product,” I.C. § 34-6-2-77, to liability for physical harm caused by a manufacturer placing “into the stream of commerce any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to any user or consumer,” I.C. § 34-20-2-1. A product is defective under the IPLA if it is defectively designed, if it has a manufacturing flaw, or if it lacks adequate warnings about dangers associated with its use.

Rickey Brewer was a construction foreman killed when a semi driver backed up a semi with an integrated PACCAR glider kit, did not see Rickey, and pinned him against a trailer, killing him. His widow and his estate asserted an IPLA claim against PACCAR. The claim asserted PACCAR’s glider kit was defectively designed because it lacked certain safety features to reduce the danger inherent in its forty-foot blind spot. (If you drive a vehicle with a rear camera and sensors, you can probably attest to the peace of mind and safety such devices add to our everyday life). Here, because a design-defect claim is based in negligence, Brewer would need to be able to prove at trial that (1) PACCAR owed a duty to Rickey; (2) PACCAR breached that duty; and (3) the breach proximately caused an injury to Rickey. The only element at issue in the case was duty—whether PACCAR lacked a duty, as a matter of law, to install certain safety features.

The Court noted the IPLA does not differentiate between a final manufacturer and a component-part manufacturer. Both are “manufacturers” for purposes of the IPLA, so both have a duty “to design … products which are reasonably fit and safe for the purpose for which they are intended,”

Prior Indiana product liability case law established that a component-part manufacturer has no duty under the IPLA to include safety features when three conditions are met: (1) the end product has multiple anticipated configurations, (2) the end manufacturer determines which configuration the product takes, and (3) the different anticipated configurations prevent the component-part manufacturer from reasonably knowing whether and how safety features should be included with the part.

The Court in Brewer found the designated evidence indisputably demonstrated that PACCAR’s sleeper-cab glider kit has one reasonably foreseeable use—to be combined with an engine, transmission, and exhaust system into an over-the-road semi. There was also no reasonable dispute that an over-the-road semi with a sleeper cab was, at some point, going to be used in reverse, and that the glider kit—both as supplied and as integrated—had a forty-foot blind spot. So, unlike the prior cases finding no duty, in Brewer the multiple, anticipated end configurations did not leave the component-part manufacturer without a duty, as a matter of law, to include safety features necessary to adequately abate inherent dangers.

The Supreme Court reversed and remanded for further proceedings, holding that whether PACCAR owed the decedent a duty to include the features was a question for the trier of fact. Brewer demonstrates the potentially complex factual and legal issues that may arise out of a workplace injury or death. Such workplace or construction site injuries and deaths may give rise to a viable product liability claim. Pursuing such claims may help deter unsafe practices, prevent future tragedies, and provide justice for those injured or killed. Read the opinion here.

The Plaintiff was seriously injured in this case when he used a grinder designed by the Defendant in an attempt to cut around a truck’s headlight opening to substitute larger headlights. The Defendant’s warnings and instructions directed users to wear safety glasses, to avoid attaching a cut-off disc without a safety guard in place, and to avoid using a cut-off disc with an RPM rating below the minimum of 25,000 RPM. The evidence established that the Plaintiff did not follow these warnings and instructions and the Indiana Supreme Court found that, despite any product defect, had the Plaintiff used a guard and safety glasses, he would not have been injured.

An injury claim arising out of the use of a product falls under the Indiana Products Liability Act (IPLA). Under the IPLA, a product-liability plaintiff must show that a product was in an unreasonably dangerous defective condition and that the product caused the plaintiff’s injuries. Plaintiffs can establish that a product was defective because of a manufacturing flaw, a defective design, or a failure to warn of dangers while using the product. Strict liability claims under the IPLA are limited to manufacturing defect claims, while claims based upon design defects or inadequate warnings or instructions are determined under negligence principles. While comparative fault principles still apply under the IPLA, the IPLA provides three non-exclusive defenses—incurred risk, product alteration, and product misuse— which based upon this opinion, all now operate as complete defenses, if proven, despite any product defects.

The parties argued about whether the Defendant’s warnings and instructions established that it could have reasonably foreseen the grinder being used in an unforeseeable manner, that is, without safety glasses, with a cut-off disc without a guard in place, and with a cut-off disc that does not meet the minimum RPM rating, which would have allowed the Plaintiff’s claim to survive. However, the Court found that the Defendant could not have reasonably expected a user to disregard the warnings and instructions in all three of these ways. The Court stated, “[the Plaintiff’s] multiple failures to follow the [g]rinder’s instructions were the cause of his injuries and taken together, could not [have been] reasonably expected by a seller.” Thus, after conflicting findings by the trial court and the Court of Appeals, the Indiana Supreme Court found in favor of the Defendant and affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment for the Defendant.