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Products Liability Keyed to Fischer, 6th Ed.
Hollister v. Dayton Hudson Corp.
Citation:
201 F.3d 731 (2000)Facts
Laura Hollister was a business student at Northwestern University when the accident occurred in November 1995. After attending a party, she returned to her apartment and apparently attempted to cook pasta. While cooking, her shirt ignited when it came into contact with a hot electric burner on her stove. Hollister suffered third-degree burns over 55% of her body, requiring extensive skin grafting and reconstructive surgery. She remained hospitalized for several months and incurred medical expenses of approximately $980,000.
The shirt in question was a brown and black plaid button-down shirt made of 100% rayon, purchased by Hollister’s mother at a Dayton Hudson department store about six years earlier. Tests conducted by Hollister’s expert showed that the fabric ignited instantly upon contact with a hot burner and burned completely within six seconds, similar to newspaper. By comparison, eleven of fourteen other fabric samples failed to ignite at all under identical test conditions, and those that did ignite burned much more slowly. Although the fabric passed the federal flammability standards established by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, Hollister claimed the shirt was defective because it was extremely flammable and lacked a warning about this dangerous characteristic.
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