Court: riding oil pump like toy horse could be “reasonably anticipated” use

by Walter Olson on November 19, 2010

By reversing a grant of summary judgment, a Louisiana court has reinstated a suit alleging that the manufacturer of a 50-year-old oil pump should have reasonably anticipated that a 13-year-old boy would climb onto its moving pendulum and attempt to ride it for fun, thus injuring himself. As evidence that such a use was reasonably foreseeable, plaintiffs offered three instances in which kids had been hurt attempting similar stunts in other states — all of which, as it happened, had occurred well after the making of the Louisiana pump, leaving it unclear in what way they could have served to put its manufacturer “on notice” of anything. [Sean Wajert]

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11.19.10 at 11:14 am

{ 3 comments }

1 mojo 11.19.10 at 12:35 pm

“Logic? We don’ need no steenkin’ logic!”

2 Mark Biggar 11.19.10 at 12:57 pm

There needs to be a Darwin Award exception to civil liability.

3 Mannie 11.19.10 at 4:04 pm

@ Mark:

I agree. I’ve long said that Insufferable Stupidity ought to be a sovereign defense against liability.

“Your honor, he was too stupid to live.”

“Agreed. Case dismissed.”

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