Products Liability Law Reporter

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that an exercise bicycle manufacturer was not liable to a user who injured his finger while moving the bike, rejecting the plaintiff’s design defect claim.

Here, Constantine Varazo injured his finger while moving an exercise bicycle manufactured by Keiser Corp. He sued the company, alleging strict liability for placing a defective product into the stream of commerce. Suit also alleged that the defendant’s design and manufacturing of the bicycle was negligent and that the company had breached the warranty of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

The district court granted summary judgment for the defense.

Affirming, the Eleventh Circuit considered the plaintiff’s claims that the equipment had manufacturing and design defects, specifically the defendant’s failure to warn of the dangers of moving the exercise bike. To establish a manufacturing defect, the court said, the plaintiff must compare his bike to one properly manufactured from the defendant’s product line. The plaintiff does not claim that the bike that allegedly injured him is distinct from any other one in the defendant’s product line, the court said. Thus, the court concluded that there is no material issue of fact regarding the manufacture of the plaintiff’s bike, and the defendant is entitled to summary judgment on this claim.

The court also rejected the plaintiff’s design defect claim. Citing case law, the court found that the plaintiff made no allegation that the bike’s design posed a heightened risk of injury or that it was not a useful design. The plaintiff’s only allegation is that the defendant’s failure to warn constituted a design defect, the court said, rejecting this theory of liability as untimely.

Absent evidence of a design flaw, the court found, summary judgment for the defendant is warranted.

Citation: Varazo v. Keiser Corp., 2018 WL 6266474 (11th Cir. Nov. 30, 2018).

Comment: In Tallman v. Ontel Prods. Corp., No. G-4801-CI-201105658-000 (Ohio Ct. Com. Pl. Lucas Cnty. July 2017), John Tallman suffered a catastrophic closed-head injury resulting in quadriplegia and severe brain damage when the bar of his Total Upper Body Workout Bar dislodged suddenly from the doorway to which it was attached, causing him to fall and strike his head. He settled his claims against the product’s manufacturer for a confidential amount. AAJ member James A. Lowe, Cleveland; Charles M. Boss, Maumee, Ohio; and AAJ member Cynthia Walters, Short Hills, N.J., represented the plaintiff in this case.