Products Liability – Failure to Warn 

Posted: 1:00 am Mon, November 9, 2009
By admin

Where towels that had been used to clean up soybean-oil shortening spontaneously combusted after laundering and drying in a household dryer, causing smoke damage to a home; and the homeowner’s insurer brought claims against the shortening manufacturer based on a failure-to-warn theory; the District Court grants the manufacturer’s motion for summary judgment because (1) insurer’s expert opinion is unreliable and can offer no assistance to a jury because it is based on sources that give no indication of the probability of the risk and because the expert did not apply the methodology used by safety professionals to the facts of this case, and (2) the publications relied upon by the insurer likewise fail to provide any basis for determining the probability that towels contaminated with the shortening will spontaneously combust after laundering.

“[A]s stated by counsel for [the insurer] at oral argument, the fire at the [insured’s] residence resulted from a ‘perfect storm of events.’ The possibility that such a perfect storm could occur is too remote to impose a duty to warn on [the manufacturer] . . . , particularly where the storm originated in [the insured’s] clean-up and laundry practices.”