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Products Liability Keyed Owen, 8th Ed.
Ford Motor Co. v. Zahn
Citation:
265 F.2d 729 (1959)Facts
On April 28, 1956, Marvin Zahn was riding as a passenger in a 1956 Ford automobile driven by Clarence Dailey. While traveling at 45-50 mph on Highway 218 in Minnesota, Zahn dropped a lit cigarette and bent down to retrieve it. At that moment, Dailey suddenly applied the brakes to avoid a collision with another vehicle that had pulled into their path from a crossroad. The sudden braking threw Zahn forward, causing his face to strike the dashboard. Specifically, his right eye came into contact with an ash tray mounted on the dashboard, resulting in a penetrating laceration across his cornea. Despite medical treatment, Zahn lost all vision in that eye. Subsequent examination revealed that the ash tray had a sharp, jagged edge with a protruding burr on its upper right-hand corner, caused by a dull cutting die during manufacturing. Ford’s quality control manager testified that while the company had inspection procedures in place, the face of the ash tray was subject only to sampling inspection rather than individual examination of each unit.
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