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19 U.S.F. L. Rev. 139 (1984-1985)
Strict Products Liability in California: An Ideological Overview

handle is hein.journals/usflr19 and id is 147 raw text is: Strict Products Liability in California: An Ideological Overview By STEPHANIE M. WILDMAN* Professor of Law, University of San Fran- cisco; A.B., Stanford University (1970); J.D., Stanford University School of Law (1973); Member, California Bar. MOLLY FARRELL** Introduction CALIFORNIA COURTS HAVE CONSISTENTLY asserted that strict products liability is a doctrine that helps consumers. The notion of strict liability for products was first raised in California case law in 1944 in Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co. of Fresno.1 In Escola, Justice Traynor reasoned that public policy required the adoption of strict products liability because strict products liability deters manufacturers from placing defective products on the mar- ket, the injured victims cannot afford the cost of the harm as well as the manufacturers who make and sell the products, proof of negligence is difficult or impossible for the consumer to provide, manufacturers have greater access to knowledge of the risks in- volved in a product, and the manufacturer is better able to spread the cost of injury by passing it along to consumers.2 These argu- * The authors wish to thank Professors Abby Ginsberg and Dolores A. Donovan for reading this paper and offering insightful suggestions for its improvement. We also thank University of San Francisco Law Review member Denise Whitehead. ** J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law (1984); Member, Vermont Bar. 1. 24 Cal. 2d 453, 150 P.2d 436 (1944) (Traynor, J., concurring). 2. Public policy demands that responsibility be fixed wherever it will most effec- tively reduce the hazards to life and health inherent in defective products that

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