AMI 1005 Products Liability—Negligence—Vendor's Duty to Warn
Ark. Model Jury Instr., Civil AMI 1005
Arkansas Model Jury Instructions-Civil
December 2023 Update
Chapter 10. Products Liability
AMI 1005 Products Liability—Negligence—Vendor's Duty to Warn
One who sells a (product) which [he][she][it] knows or has reason to know is likely to be dangerous when used in the manner or for the purpose for which it was designed has a duty to give a reasonable and adequate warning of that danger. A violation of this duty is negligence. There is no duty, however, to warn a user of obvious dangers or of those known to [him][her] or of those which [he][she] should reasonably discover for [himself][herself].
COMMENT
In Lilly v. J. A. Riggs Tractor Co., 238 Ark. 1027, 386 S.W.2d 488 (1965), plaintiff's widow and estate filed suit after his death against J.A. Riggs Tractor Co., an authorized dealer of the allegedly defective machine, which had entered into negotiations with plaintiff's employer for the sale of the machine and provided the machine for plaintiff's and his employer's use.
For the distinction between (1) the inapplicability of the “patent danger” doctrine to negligent design claims, (2) the inapplicability of the “open and obvious danger” doctrine to failure to warn claims, and (3) comparative fault and assumption of risk, see Forrest City Mach. Works, Inc. v. Aderhold, 273 Ark. 33, 616 S.W.2d 720 (1981).
In Cheatam v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, 726 F.Supp.2d 1021, 1023–24 (E.D. Ark. 2010), the court ruled that the publisher of patient drug information included with the prescription drug owed no duty to warn the product liability plaintiff.
© 2023 Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Jury Instructions-Civil
| End of Document |