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Sindell v. Abbott Laboratories, (1980), was a landmark
products liability Product liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, retailers, and others who make products available to the public are held responsible for the injuries those products cause. Although the word "product" has ...
decision of the
Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sac ...
which pioneered the
doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system ...
of
market share liability Market share liability is a legal doctrine that allows a plaintiff to establish a prima facie case against a group of product manufacturers for an injury caused by a product, even when the plaintiff does not know from which defendant the product ...
.


Background

The plaintiff in ''Sindell'' was a young woman who developed cancer as a result of her mother's use of the drug
diethylstilbestrol Diethylstilbestrol (DES), also known as stilbestrol or stilboestrol, is a nonsteroidal estrogen medication, which is presently rarely used. In the past, it was widely used for a variety of indications, including pregnancy support for those with ...
(DES) during
pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but can ...
. A large number of companies had manufactured DES around the time the plaintiff's mother used the drug. Since the drug was a
fungible In economics, fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are essentially interchangeable, and each of whose parts is indistinguishable from any other part. Fungible tokens can be exchanged or replaced; for exa ...
product and many years had passed, it was impossible for the plaintiff to identify the manufacturer(s) of the particular DES pills her mother had actually consumed.


Decision

In a 4-3 majority decision by Associate Justice
Stanley Mosk Morey Stanley Mosk (September 4, 1912 – June 19, 2001) was an American jurist, politician, and attorney. He served as Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court for 37 years (1964–2001), the longest tenure in that court's history. ...
, the court decided to impose a new kind of liability, known as market share liability. The doctrine evolved from a line of negligence and strict products liability opinions (most of which had been decided by the Supreme Court of California) that were being adopted as the majority rule in many U.S. states. The essential components of the theory are as follows:
# All defendants named in the suit are ''potential'' tortfeasors (that is, they did produce the harmful product at issue at some point in time) # The product involved is ''fungible'' # The plaintiff cannot identify ''which defendant'' produced the fungible product which harmed ''her'' in particular, through no fault of her own # A ''substantial share'' of the manufacturers who produced the product during the relevant time period are named as defendants in the action
If these requirements are met, a rebuttable presumption arises in favor of the plaintiff; if she can prove actual damages, then a court may order each defendant to pay a percentage of such damages equal to its share of the market for the product at the time the product was used. A manufacturer may rebut the presumption and reduce its market share damages to zero by showing that its product could not have possibly injured the plaintiff (for example, by demonstrating that it did not manufacture the product during the time period relevant for that particular plaintiff). Mosk later explained in an
oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
interview that the court got the idea for market share liability from the ''
Fordham Law Review The ''Fordham Law Review'' is a student-run law journal associated with the Fordham University School of Law that covers a wide range of legal scholarship. Overview In 2017, the ''Fordham Law Review'' was the seventh-most cited law journal by ot ...
'' comment cited extensively in the ''Sindell'' opinion.Hon. Stanley Mosk
Oral History Interview
(Berkeley: California State Archives Regional Oral History Office, 1998), 62.


Dissent

Associate Justice Frank K. Richardson wrote a dissent in which he accused the majority of
judicial activism Judicial activism is a judicial philosophy holding that the courts can and should go beyond the applicable law to consider broader societal implications of its decisions. It is sometimes used as an antonym of judicial restraint. The term usually ...
and argued that the judiciary should defer to the legislature, whose role it was to craft an appropriate solution to the problems presented by the unique nature of DES.


Problems of doctrine

Courts after ''Sindell'' have refused to apply the market share doctrine to products other than drugs such as DES. The argument centers on the fact that a product must be fungible to hold all producers equally liable for any harm. If the product was not fungible, then different production methods or gross negligence in manufacturing might imply that some manufacturers were actually more culpable than others, yet they would only be required to pay up to their share of the market. The time period over which the harm occurred is also an issue: in '' Skipworth v. Lead Industries Association'' 690 A.2d 169 (Pa. 1997), a 1997
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Mary ...
case, the plaintiffs complained of the use of
lead-based paint Lead paint or lead-based paint is paint containing lead. As pigment, lead(II) chromate (, "chrome yellow"), lead(II,IV) oxide, (, "red lead"), and lead(II) carbonate (, "white lead") are the most common forms.. Lead is added to paint to accel ...
in their house and brought suit against
Lead Industries Association The Lead Industries Association (LIA) was a trade organization that in 1925 made it possible for Tetraethyllead to be an additive of commercial gasoline and later incorporated in 1928 to promote the interests of the lead industry. The National Lead ...
. The court refused to apply the market share theory because the house had stood for over a century and many manufacturers of lead-based paint had since gone out of business, while others named in the suit had not existed at the time the house was painted. The court also noted that lead-based paint was not a fungible product and therefore, some of the manufacturers may not have been responsible for Skipworth's injuries.


Notes


References


Sources

* Epstein, Richard A. ''Cases and Materials on Torts,'' 8th edition. New York: Aspen Publishers, 2004 * Gifford, Donald G.
Suing the Tobacco and Lead Pigment Industries: Government Litigation as Public Health Prescription
' Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including L ...
, 2010.


External links

* {{United States tort case law Negligence case law California state case law United States tort case law 1980 in United States case law 1980 in California Drug safety