Legal Environment of Business 8th Edition by Henry Cheeseman

Exercise 1

Summary Judgment Deborah Daughetee con­sumed multiple bags of microwave popcorn daily for approximately 5 years. Deborah recalled eating more than 10 different brands of buttered popcorn. After removing a bag of butter-flavored microwave popcorn from the microwave, Deborah would open the bag and draw the buttery smell into her nose and lungs. She testified that she "liked the smell of opening a bag near my face." Diacetyl is a food chemical that is an ingre­dient used to produce the "buttery" taste and smell of buttered microwave popcorn. Chr. Hansen, Inc., Symrise, Inc., and Firmenich, Inc. (defendants) are corporations that produce butter flavoring that con­tains diacetyl. Defendants sold their butter flavoring to microwave popcorn manufacturers who produced the various brands of buttered popcorn eaten by Debo­rah. On opening a microwave popcorn bag with but­ter flavoring, diacetyl vapors are released. After several industry studies found that extended exposure to di-acetyl vapors could cause lung disease, many popcorn manufacturers adopted a number of safety precautions in their microwave popcorn plants to protect workers from overexposure to butter flavoring vapors. However, the popcorn makers made no changes to their prod­ucts' packaging. Deborah sued the defendants, claim­ing that she had developed respiratory injury-known as popcorn lung-by smelling the microwave popcorn that contained the buttered flavoring made by the de­fendants. The defendant corporations made motions for summary judgment. Should the defendants' motions for summary judgment be granted? Daughetee v. Chr. Hansen, Inc., 2013 U.S. Dist. Lexis 50804 (2013) (United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, 2013)