You are a new associate in a general practice law firm. A pa…
You are a new associate in a general practice law firm. A partner asked you to sit in on an initial interview with a potential client, Paul. Paul shattered his ankle when he fell from a scaffold that collapsed with him at his place of employment, Trailer Repair, Inc. (Hereinafter TR). TR repairs trailers of 18 wheelers used to haul goods over the road. At the time of his injury Paul was using the scaffold adjusted to 9 feet so he could repair the seam where the roof and side of the trailer meet (top seam). The scaffold was adjustable from 3 feet to 10 feet in 6-inch intervals by means of 4 pins. Each pin went through a hole in one of the 4 corners of the scaffold platform and a hole in one of the 4 legs. The scaffold was on wheels. To repair a top seam Paul and his coworkers would have to move the scaffold 8 times on each side of the trailer which was very inconvenient. In time Paul and his coworkers found that they could leave the scaffold wheels unlocked and scoot the scaffold down the side of the trailer shifting their weight to create a rocking motion. The scaffold carton had a conspicuous inscription in a box bordered by bold lines that said “Warning: DO NOT mount scaffold unless wheels are LOCKED.” Adjacent to the words and in the box with the words was a drawing of a stick figure losing its balance and falling from the top of a scaffold. The scaffold was manufactured by Tool Company, Inc. (Hereinafter Tool). Tool sold the scaffold to ABC Distribution, Inc. (hereinafter “Distributor”) which buys from various manufacturers and resells to independent hardware stores. Distributor sold the scaffold to Hardware, Inc. (Hereinafter Hardware), a local independent hardware store that sells a variety of tools including scaffolds. TR bought the scaffold from Hardware. A TR supervisor and Paul went to Hardware to buy the scaffold. The supervisor told the salesperson how TR would use the scaffold. The salesperson showed them to the scaffolds which included seven selections and pointing to two models said “either one of these scaffolds should work.” After the salesperson left, the supervisor told Paul that he was not sure the salesperson knew what he was talking about. The supervisor reviewed the specifications on each of the scaffolds before selecting one of the scaffolds the salesperson had recommended. The scaffold came in a sealed carton from Tool. Professor Witness, PhD (hereinafter Witness) teaches at Columbia Tech. After various tests Professor Witness was able to determine that with repeated rocking motion the pins that support the platform will back out of the holes in the scaffold legs allowing the scaffold platform to fall. Witness further opined that, “with simple technology that has been in use for centuries,” the pins could have been secured by a small device near the end of each pin for a cost of $1.50 per scaffold. Under Witness’s alternative design, the scaffold would work as it did before. All events take place in Everytown, Columbia U.S.A. Columbia has 1) adopted the UCC including U.C.C § 2-316 Alternative C which provides that warranties extend to any person who may reasonably be expected to use, consume, or be affected by the goods; 2) except for duty to warn cases, has adopted a products liability statute using the language of Restatement 2d § 402A. The case law of Columbia follows the prevailing trends of the nation interpreting Restatement 2d § 402A. In duty to warn cases it has adopted a negligence standard.; and 3) is a pure comparative fault state. Write a memo to the partner evaluating Paul’s case.
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