Imminent Danger Exception and the Breakdown of the
Privity of Contract Requirement (P.42)
Negligently made products (ex. defective balance wheel on circular
saw1, rotten wooden spokes in car wheel2) were considered imminent
dangerous.
The category of imminent dangerous products is not limited to poisons,
explosives, and things of like nature (things which in their normal
operation are implements of destruction). If the nature of things is such
that it is reasonably certain to place life and limb in peril when things are
negligently made, then they are things of imminent danger.
Privity of contract requirement was early abolished in express warranty
case3 and implied warranty cases4, and then it was applied to strict
products liability case5.
1
Loop v. Litchfield (1870).
MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. (1916).
3
Baxter v. Ford Motor Co. (1932).
4
Mazetti v. Armour & Co. (1913) (dangerous food-stuffs); Rogers v. Toni Home Permanent Co.(1958)
(cosmetics); Henningsen v. Bloomfield Motors, Inc. (1960) (a defective car).
5
Greenman v. Yuba Power Products. Inc. (1963).
2