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Will the CT Supreme Court Reinvent Design Defect Law?<br><font size="-1"><b><i>Part One of a Two-Part Article</b></i></font>
For over half of a century, Connecticut product liability law has been premised on strict liability. See Garthwait v. Burgio, 153 Conn. 284, 289 (1965) (holding that a manufacturer culpable even when it “has exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale of [its] product”). Manufacturers are in a better position than the injured party to design their products safely and absorb the cost of injury. The Connecticut Supreme Court's decision in Izarelli v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., released early in 2016, reaffirmed this keystone of product liability jurisprudence when the court held that the modified consumer expectation test is the primary test for design defect claims. See Izarelli, 321 Conn. 172, 193 (2016) (setting forth the standards “for a strict product liability action based on defective design generally.”).
Despite this long-standing principle, the court is now considering whether it should abandon its strict product liability premise for design defect claims, and replace it with section 2(b) of the Restatement (Third) of Torts, which requires the plaintiff to prove the manufacturer's foreseeability of harm, and prove the effectiveness of a reasonable alternative design. See Bifolck v. Philip Morris, Inc. (FEDB-CV-060001768-S (Connecticut Supreme Court docket for Bifolck); see also Restatement (Third) of Torts, Products Liability § 2(b) (Am. Law Inst.)
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