M Civ JI 25.31 Negligent Production - Definition

The defendant had a duty to use reasonable care at the time of [ production* ] of the [ product / [ name of product ] ] so as to eliminate unreasonable risks of harm or injury that were reasonably foreseeable.

Reasonable care means that degree of care that a reasonably prudent manufacturer would exercise under the circumstances that you find existed in this case. It is for you to decide, based on the evidence, what a reasonably prudent manufacturer would do or would not do under those circumstances.

A failure to fulfill the duty to use reasonable care is negligence.

However, the defendant had no duty to _______________* a [ product / [ name of product ] ] to eliminate reasonable risks of harm or injury or risks that were not reasonably foreseeable.

Note on Use

*Select the appropriate word or words from the statutory definition of production, which is: “‘Production’ means manufacture, construction, design, formulation, development of standards, preparation, processing, assembly, inspection, testing, listing, certifying, warning, instructing, marketing, selling, advertising, packaging, or labeling.” MCL 600.2945(i).

M Civ JI 10.02 should not be used with this instruction.

Comment

MCL 600.2947.

See Owens v Allis-Chambers Corp, 414 Mich 413; 326 NW2d 372 (1982).

The test for assessing a manufacturer’s liability to persons injured by its product is whether the risk to the plaintiff is unreasonable and foreseeable by the manufacturer, not whether the risk is patent or obvious to the plaintiff. Owens. For this reason, the instruction does not refer to obviousness.

History

M Civ JI 25.31 was added February 1981. Amended January 1990, March 2001.