Hot Coffee is the name of a corporation that manufactures coffee mugs. Each Hot

Question

Hot Coffee is the name of a corporation that manufactures coffee mugs. Each Hot Coffeemug is labeled as being dishwasher safe but does not have any labels indicating that it is oven or microwave safe.  Hot Coffee received a complaint from John Smith, a consumer whose coffee mug shattered and cut his hand. Mr. Smith stated that he had warmed up his coffee in the microwave and was carrying it back to his desk when it broke. He required stitches in his hand as a result.

Watch the following video to supplement your understanding of the Purpose of Tort Law, Intentional Torts, Negligence, and Strict Liability from the textbook.

What is Product Liability?  Tech Policy Lab, University of Washington
Published on Mar 15, 2016 Retrieved from https://youtu.be/BnU3sidMlls

Choose either Hot Coffee or Mr. Smith to argue for. Describe your best argument for your chosen side. Also, identify what additional information you would need to make your argument complete.

Explanation / Answer

It is the customers responsibility to ensure that the gurantee should be in provable format. It can be in the form of advertisement, video clip, written document or label. Since nothing was mentioned on the label, we need any to check if anything sort of the promise made to the customer, can be proven from anywhere else. If this can't be found then the company is not liable. Oral promise has no value and can't be proven unless the discussion was video recorded.

I would take the side of Hot Coffee. The management won't take responsibility of any oral promise made by the sellers. Secondly there might be something Mr. Smith has done with the product (some tampering), which might have lead to the breakage. Dishwasher and microwave are two different entity. Their working is different and it is the prerogative of the customer to check if the company has explicitly mentioned that the product can be used in a microwave. If not, then the company won't be held liable for the damage.

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