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Duty to Warn and Third-Party Conduct: A Look at Two Recent New York Cases
In the past year, New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, issued two decisions addressing both the scope of a defendant's duty to warn in negligence and products liability actions, and the scope of tort liability in actions predicated upon third-party conduct. In In re N.Y.C. Asbestos Litigation (N.Y.C. Asbestos), No. 83, 2016 WL 3495191 (N.Y. June 28, 2016), the court considered the circumstances under which a manufacturer of a non-hazardous product has a duty to warn against dangers arising from the product's use in combination with a hazardous product manufactured by a third party. In Pasternack v. Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings, No. 112, 2016 WL 3543713 (N.Y. June 30, 2016), the court considered: 1) whether laboratories and related entities have a common law duty to comply with federal regulations and guidelines governing drug-testing procedures that are unrelated to preserving the scientific integrity of the testing process; and 2) whether a plaintiff who suffers damages as a result of a third party's reliance on a false representation can state a claim for fraud.
Historical Backdrop
More than 20 years ago, the court addressed the issue of a manufacturer's duty to warn in the context of the joint use of two products in Rastelli v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber, 79 N.Y.2d 289 (1992). In Rastelli, the court set forth several factors relevant to whether a manufacturer must warn against the dangers arising from the combined use of the manufacturer's non-defective product with a defective product produced by a third party. Id. at 298. Holding in favor of the manufacturer, Goodyear, the court concluded that Goodyear had no duty to warn against risks associated with the use of its tire in conjunction with another company's defective rim assembly because Goodyear “did not contribute to the alleged defect in [the] product, had no control over it, and did not produce it.” Id. Since the decision in Rastelli, several Appellate Division decisions have held that a manufacturer owes a duty to warn against dangers arising from the joint use of its product when the third party's product “is essential to the intended function of the manufacturer's product.” In re N.Y.C. Asbestos Litig., 2016 WL 3495191, at *30 (collecting cases).
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