Also known as: manufactures · manufactured · manufacturing · manufacturer · manufacturers
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The production of a chattel or other good through labor or the use of machinery.
Matrix Technologies produced a press brake and sold it to a buyer who had a duty to inspect. An employee of the buyer was injured when a hidden flaw caused the machine to malfunction. The employee sued Matrix. The court held Matrix liable even though the defect could have been found by the required inspection.
Mercury Industries advertised its vehicles, maintained dealerships, and supplied parts in the forum state. A resident bought one of its cars elsewhere and was injured when the car malfunctioned. The resident sued in the forum state. The court exercised specific jurisdiction because the claim related to the company's extensive forum contacts.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Majestic Construction purchased a prefabricated structure from Maxwell Manufacturing that met the size and transport requirements for a manufactured home. The buyer granted a security interest in the unit. The lender claimed the interest attached to goods. The court classified the unit as goods under the UCC definition.
Matrix Technologies designed a conveyor system whose layout created an unreasonable risk of pinch-point injuries. A worker using the system suffered a severe injury. The worker sued Matrix. The court imposed liability because the company failed to exercise reasonable care in adopting a safe design.
A foreign company placed its components into the national distribution network without directing any marketing or sales efforts toward the forum state. A forum resident was injured by a product containing one of the components. The resident sued the foreign company in the forum. The court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction because the company had not purposefully targeted the state.
Majestic Construction affixed its own brand to scaffolding manufactured by another firm and sold the units to contractors. A worker was injured when a defective weld failed. The worker sued Majestic. The court treated Majestic as the manufacturer and imposed the same liability.
Yes. A manufacturer is subject to liability for a dangerous chattel even if the defect is discoverable by an inspection that the seller or another person owes a duty to perform.
Jurisdiction exists when the manufacturer has extensively advertised, maintained dealerships, and supplied replacement parts in the state, thereby creating and exploiting a market, and the claim relates to those contacts.
Goods are all things movable when a security interest attaches and expressly include manufactured homes along with fixtures, crops, and embedded computer programs meeting specified conditions.
The manufacturer is liable for physical harm caused by failure to exercise reasonable care in adopting a safe plan or design to those expected to use the chattel or be endangered by its probable use.
The manufacturer must target the forum state specifically rather than merely placing goods in the national stream of commerce without purposeful direction toward that state.
A seller that puts out the chattel as its own product is subject to the same liability as if it had manufactured the chattel.
…business as millers at Gloucester; on 11 May their mill was stopped by a breakage of the crank shaft. The steam-engine had been manufactured by Messrs. Joyce & Co., engineers of Greenwich, and it became necessary to send the broken shaft as a pattern for a new one to Greenwich. The fracture was discovered on 12 May, and on 13…