USA – NEW JERSEY Trends and Developments Contributed by: Mark Silver, Thomas Cotton, Joseph Amoroso and Timothy Duffy, Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP
New Jersey Products Liability Act: Statutory Overview and Recent Case Law New Jersey has been known as the “Medicine Chest of the World.” It is a title earned through generations of scientific breakthroughs, pharmaceutical and manu - facturing innovation, and lifesaving discoveries. The one thing that goes hand-in-hand with innovation is litigation. The New Jersey Products Liability Act (NJPLA or PLA), N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-1 to -11, stands as one of the most important ‒ and most litigated ‒ statutes in the state. As New Jersey courts and federal courts applying New Jersey law continue to test the statute’s bounda - ries, its reach, defences, and interplay with common law and federal regulatory regimes remain active are - as of legal development. This article provides a brief overview of the NJPLA’s statutory framework before examining its recent treatment in five significant deci - sions that together illuminate the statute’s operation across a range of product types and legal contexts: vehicles, medical devices, cosmetics, and pharma - ceutical products. The New Jersey Products Liability Act: A Statutory Overview The NJPLA was enacted as remedial legislation to establish clear rules in actions for damages caused by products. As New Jersey courts have repeatedly observed, the Legislature intended the Act to address matters that require clarification in the law of products liability, and to channel claims into a unified statutory framework. It was intended to be the singular statute to address all product liability litigation. The core liability standard The central provision of the NJPLA, N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-2, sets forth the standard for liability. Under this Sec - tion, a manufacturer or seller of a product is liable in a product liability action only if the claimant proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the product causing harm was not reasonably fit, suitable, or safe for its intended purpose because it: • deviated from the design specifications, formulae, or performance standards of the manufacturer or from otherwise identical units manufactured to the same specifications (manufacturing defect);
• failed to contain adequate warnings or instructions (failure to warn); or • was designed in a defective manner (design defect). These three theories ‒ manufacturing defect, failure to warn, and design defect ‒ represent the exclusive statutory causes of action under the NJPLA. Critically, the NJPLA is broadly pre-emptive. The stat - ute defines a “product liability action” as any claim or action brought by a claimant for harm caused by a product, irrespective of the theory underlying the claim, except actions for harm caused by breach of an express warranty. N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-1 (b)(3). New Jersey courts have consistently held that the NJPLA effectively creates an exclusive statutory cause of action for claims falling within its purview, subsum - ing common law product liability theories such as negligence, strict liability, and implied warranty. This exclusivity is one of the NJPLA’s most consequential features and regularly shapes motion practice in New Jersey and in federal courts sitting in diversity. Definitions: harm, manufacturer, and seller The statute defines “harm” broadly to include physi - cal damage to property other than the product itself; personal physical illness, injury, or death; pain and suffering, mental anguish, or emotional harm; and any loss of consortium or services deriving from any of those categories. N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-1 (b)(2). Importantly, only “manufacturers” and “sellers” can be held liable under the NJPLA. A “manufacturer” encompasses any person who designs, formulates, produces, creates, makes, packages, labels, or con - structs any product or component of a product, as well as domestic sales subsidiaries of foreign man - ufacturers holding a controlling interest. N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-8. A “product seller” includes any person who, in the course of a business conducted for that purpose, sells, distributes, leases, installs, assembles, blends, packages, labels, markets, repairs, maintains, or otherwise places a product in the line of commerce. N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-8.
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