Products Liability Law Reporter
Consumer Products
You must be a Products Liability Law Reporter subscriber to access this content.
If you are a member of the Products Liability Section or a subscriber, log in below. Not yet a Section member? Join today!
Join the Products Liability SectionAlready a subscriber? Log in
Defective child carrier
April/May 2022Joshua and Olga Hardin placed their 10-month-old daughter, Doe, in an Osprey Poco Plus Child Carrier. The family went hiking, and as they neared the end of their hike, Doe fell through the bottom of the carrier and violently struck the back of her head on a rock, which led to a fractured skull. Doe was taken by ambulance to a transport zone and life flighted to a hospital, where she required heroic measures to save her life.
Doe’s representatives sued Osprey Child Safety Products, LLC, and Osprey Packs, Inc., alleging strict products liability, design defect, failure to warn, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and breach of warranty. The plaintiffs sought punitive damages. Suit claimed that the defendants had designed, manufactured, assembled, supplied, and introduced into the stream of commerce a child carrier that allowed a small child to fall through the carrier’s unreasonably large leg openings. The plaintiffs also asserted that the defendants should have remedied the large leg openings or warned about the risk of falls.
The plaintiffs and defendants reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount.
Citation: Hardin v. Osprey Child Safety Prods., LLC, No. 4:19-CV-767-JM (E.D. Ark. Oct. 19, 2021).
Plaintiff counsel: AAJ members Andrew S. Herring and F. Jerome Tapley, both of Birmingham, Ala.; and AAJ members Denise R. Hoggard and Robert L. Beard, both of Little Rock, Ark.