In a potential curtain raiser on the future of Pennsylvania products liability law, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals predicted Tuesday in a ruling that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will import negligence concepts into the strict liability doctrine by adopting portions of a torts legal treatise.
The 3rd Circuit panel of Judges Theodore A. McKee, Thomas L. Ambro and D. Michael Fisher predicted that, because Pennsylvania’s products liability law is a confused affair, the Supreme Court will adopt Sections 1 and 2 of the American Law Institute‘s Restatement (Third) of Torts. The ALI restates common law and distills caselaw in order to propose what form law should take, and courts often use the ALI’s work in their rulings.
