Americans 'will sue aft drop of a hat’

Press, 24 February 1988, Page 24

Americans 'will sue aft drop of a hat’

PA New Plymouth Americans will sue at the drop of a hat and New Zealand companies must recognise the dangers of products liability, a United States ecomomist, Robert Auerbach, says. In New Plymouth Mr Auerbach, a lawyer with his own consultancy business, addressed the Taranaki Branch of the Export Institute. He spoke on the United States economic outlook and the products liability crisis.

Illustrating his opinion that the United States is the most litigious society in the world, Mr Auerbach cited several cases; © The wife of the man who shot and murdered 21 patrons at a McDonald’s restaurant has brought a multimillion dollar wrongful death action against the restaurant chain, claiming

her husband was high on chicken mcnuggets. ® In another celebrated case, a woman attempted suicide by locking herself in the trunk of her car. She was discovered still alive nine days later. She regained her health but apparently not her sanity as she subsequently brought a multimillion dollar law suit against Ford claiming it should have foreseen these types of accidents and equipped its car with internal trunk latches. ©.Then there was the case of a woman who sued a hosiery manufacturer after she slipped out of her shoes while walking down a staircase. She claimed her nylon pantyhose were too slippery. © In California, a woman fell asleep on her couch while smoking a cigarette and started a fire. She sued the manu-

facturer of the couch and the cigarettes claiming she was not adequately warned of the dangers of sleeping while smoking. These examples were just the tip of the iceberg, and Mr Auerbach warned exporters to recognise their vulnerability to products liability suits in the United States and to adopt measures aimed at reducing that vulnerability. “Products liability is a cost of production just as much as labour and raw materials are. As such, it must be factored into the price of the final product.”

But Mr Auerbach offered hope to New Zealand exporters.

He said American consumers were becoming fed up with the silliness of some law suits and the products liability crisis might soon abate.