Cengage Advantage Books: Fundamentals of Business Law Today 10th Edition by Roger LeRoy Miller

Exercise 12

FACTS Jasper County Sheriff Benjamin Riley was driving his Ford F-150 pickup truck near Ehrhardt, South Carolina, when it collided with another vehicle. The impact caused Riley's truck to leave the road and roll over. The driver's door opened in the collision, and Riley was ejected and killed. Riley's widow, Laura, as the representative of his estate, filed a product liability suit in a South Carolina state court against Ford Motor Company. The Riley estate alleged that the design of the rod-linkage door-latch system of the truck allowed the door to open in the collision. The court awarded the estate $900,000 in damages because of Benjamin's "stature" and what he had done in life and what he had contributed to his family. Ford appealed, arguing that the plaintiff had not proved the existence of a reasonable alternative design.
ISSUE Did the Riley estate prove the existence of a reasonable alternative design for the defective door-latch system?
DECISION Yes. A state intermediate appellate court affirmed the lower court's ruling.
REASON Evidence showed that Ford knew of a reasonable alternative design for the truck's door-latch system. Ford was aware of the system's safety problems and had conducted a risk-utility analysis of a different system, concluding that it was a "feasible, if not superior, alternative."
To meet the risk-utility test, a plaintiff must show a reasonable alternative design for the product at issue. This involves showing that the manufacturer, after weighing costs and benefits, decided to use one design instead of another. In this case, the plaintiff presented evidence of Ford's own alternative design for a cable-linkage door-latch system, which the manufacturer had used in earlier F-150 trucks. According to studies conducted by Ford, cable systems have several advantages over rod systems; in particular, "cable systems are easier for assembly plants to handle," and they "reduce cost and reduce operator dependence," "reduce complexity in service," and "are more robust to crash." The only disadvantage is that cable systems cost more than rod systems.
FOR CRITICAL ANALYS IS-Legal Environment Consideration By what means did the Riley estate most likely discover Ford's studies of an alternative design for the truck's door-latch system?