In the latest product case manufactured in China, a French retailer has pulled Chinese-made sofas from the market after people developed a chemical reaction from sitting on them. The culprit appears to be an excessive treatment of an anti-mold chemical. This follows arrests in the Chinese tainted milk case.
Retail giant Conforama withdrew the chairs after three years of sales after a doctor linked a painful rash to the chemical
Made by the Chinese company Link Wise, the sofas contained too much of an anti-mould substance and resulted in complaints from 400 customers seeking damages. Another 800 received refunds. This type of claim could involve both allegations of manufacturing defects and design defects as well as warning defects. In the United States, the company would be looking at certain liability.
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How about this for a products liability claim made by a bystander, er by-sitter? Restatement (Second) Torts Sec. 389, what about this?
Yes, but when those people got out of the Motel Six hot tub nothing stuck to their butts. This benefit must balance the harm.
I think we should call it a Butt Tort.
I sell equipment to upholstered furniture manufacturers in the SE USA (La-Z-Boy, Action Lane, Ashley, etc, etc). Business has been hit hard because of the Chinese influx of cheap furniture, so this is an avenue I never considered as a way to bring the manufacturing BACK to the US.
Keep up the good work, China.
PSA to Americans: I would avoid any and all food products, toys and now furniture from China. I expect you to stop shopping Wal-Mart immediately.