QUESTION
Who is liable for the shattered shower door, the distributor or the independent contractor that installed it?
Asked on Apr 11th, 2015 on Personal Injury - California
More details to this question:
I am a distributor of shower doors, one of my sellers forwarded me a complaint from their customer. who 18 months ago purchased a shower door from them and had it installed by a independent contractor. The shower door exploded a few days ago causing injury to the customer's husband. Now they are asking for medical compensation from the seller. The seller is forwarding the emails to me, do I have any liability in this case? Also, the day after the incident, the seller contacted me to go to the site to look at the broken shower door. I went with the seller's team of three to examine the shower door, it was then I noticed that a critical piece at the base of shower door was not in place. I am thinking that the contractor may have missed this.
4 ANSWERS
Health Law/Long Term Care Facilities for the Elderly Attorney serving Los Angeles, CA
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Murchison & Cumming, LLP
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Question is how did the critical piece become out of place? Two possible answers: 1. It was manufactured improperly, with the key piece out of place. In this case the manufacturerwould be strictly liable for manufacturing a defective product. However the installer could also share some fault if the defect was obvious and should have beed detected and repaired or replaced during installation. 2. The second possibility is that the misplaced piece was caused by negligent installation, in which case the installer would be at fault. However, the manufacturerwould have to prove that the misplaced piece was correctly in place when the door left the Manufacturer.
Answered on Jun 01st, 2015 at 3:35 AM
Edwin K. Niles
If the installer was negligent, he is the one responsible. If the failure was due to a manufacturing problem, everyone up and down the line could be liable.
Answered on Apr 14th, 2015 at 6:17 PM
Personal Injury Law Attorney serving San Diego, CA
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Law Office of Robert Burns
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Everyone in the chain of sale is a fair target, i.e., designer(s), manufacturer(s), distributor, wholesaler, and retailer (contractor) plus everyone who may have tampered, damaged, or installed it defectively.
Answered on Apr 14th, 2015 at 10:23 AM
You are saying that the door was safe when it left the manufacture and left your hands and that of your seller, but the contractor installing it might be liable [should he/she have reasonably known that missing piece had to be there? Why would that take 18 months before it shattered? Contact the manufacturer and tell them what happened. They see liability claims all the time and hire attorneys to handle them. You can probably ride on the coattails of the maker of the door, as they will want to say it was safe when it left the seller's possession. It does not seem that you have any liability, but if a suit is filed you may be included by a cautious attorney who brings everyone in who might have any liability.
Answered on Apr 14th, 2015 at 1:07 AM