Component Parts and Raw Material Sellers: From the Titanic to the New Restatement

Professor Madden evaluates the treatment of potential design and informational obligation liability for raw materials and component parts manufacturers under the Products Liability Restatement. Following an introduction to the approach taken under the Restatement (Second) of Torts: Products Liability, and the congruent approach of the new the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability (hereinafter Third Restatement), the author evaluates the Third Restatement and the limited number of decisions that have employed it. Further to the goal of evaluating the bona fides of the Third Restatement rule, the author describes the two principal approaches to modem Tort law. The first approach is the venerable corrective justice-morality model. The second model is that of economic efficiency-deterrence. Professor Madden concludes that the Third Restatement\u27s synthesis in terms of warnings and design duties of raw materials or component parts suppliers proves up favorably under either construct, and that as respects these somewhat commingled issues represents a valuable contribution to Products Liability law