Product Liability Bill Passes House

Most of the products we buy and use work pretty well. But occasionally a product fails with serious consequences. Users can be maimed, even killed. Damages can go beyond the physical to include psychological injuries. It can be a nightmare for the buyer. But increasingly in our litigious society, it can be a nightmare for the entire chain of distribution that delivered the product to the buyer.

After the injury come the doctors. And after the doctors, just as surely as God made little green apples, come the lawy-ers. The lawsuits the attorneys file bring with them enormous costs in time, money, lost productivity and an apple orchard of stress. Many times the victims claims are justified. But too often thev are not. But valid or not. the lawyers sue all the way up and down the distribution chain. It's not a pretty picture.

But help may be on its way. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 2366, "The Small Business Liability Reform Act of 2000." The National Association of WholesalerDistributors has lauded the legislation, observing that in product liability lawsuits it would "significantly limit the liability of non-manufacturer product sellers such as distributors, retailers, lessors, and renters only to harms caused by their own negligence or intentional wrongdoing, the product's breach of the seller's own express warranty, and for the product manufacturer's responsibility when the manufacturer is judgementproof."

The bill also eliminates joint (deep pockets) liability for "noneconomic loss" and limits punitive damage awards to $250,000 for cmployers with fewer than 25 full-time employees that become defendants in civil lawsuits. Neither of these provisions would apply to lawsuits involving certain egregious misconduct and states could opt-out by statue.

NAW's vice president for government relations Jim Anderson notes "the efforts of the House...builds significant momentum for the work we need to do to move this legislation through the Senate." We wish them well.