“We adhere to the view that distributors of ‘defective products unreasonably dangerous’ should pay damages for injuries caused by the products, without reduction because a plaintiff may have been guilty of a degree of carelessness"
How later courts described this case
- “We adhere to the view that distributors of ‘defective products unreasonably dangerous’ should pay damages for injuries caused by the products, without reduction because a plaintiff may have been guilty of a degree of carelessness"
- refusing to apply comparative fault principles to products liability actions
- declining to apply comparative fault in a strict products liability case
- " 'Fault' includes acts or omissions that are in any measure negligent or reckless"
Written by the judges who cited it.
Distinguished
Distinguished by Henderson v. Terminal Railroad Ass'n of St. Louis, 736 S.W.2d 590 (1987)
While the appeal was pending, the Lippard decision, which held that comparative fault was inapplicable to strict products liability cases, was handed down thus resolving that issue on appeal and rendering a large portion of the Earll decision, including the above quoted passage, dicta.
The opinion
BILLINGS, Judge,
concurring.
I concur. I write only to quote the wisdom of Dean Pound:
The opinions of the judge of the highest court of a state are no place for intemperate denunciation of the judge’s colleagues, violent invective, attributings of bad motives to the majority of the court, and insinuations of incompetence, negligence, prejudice, or obtuseness of fellow members of the court.
* * # * * *
Constitutions and justice according to law are today under attack throughout the world_ Maintenance of our char *495 acteristic American constitutional-legal polity demands that the courts hold, as they have held in the past, the respect and confidence of the public. What amounts to attacks upon our courts from within, however well intentioned and motivated ... are highly unfortunate_
Roscoe Pound, Cacoethes Dissentiendi: The Heated Judicial Dissent, 39 Amer.B. Assn.J. 794 (1953).