The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, recently addressed the nebulous “technical feasibility” requirement in the “state of the art” defense to product liability design defect claims under New Jersey’s Product Liability Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-1 (the “PLA”). In Confessore v. AGCO Corp., No. A-0947-18T1, 2020 WL 6703550 (App. Div. Nov. 16, 2020), the Appellate Division affirmed the trial court’s decision to permit a jury instruction on the “state of the art” defense under the PLA in an action arising from a fatal rollover accident involving a tractor that was being used to remove a tree in an orchard.

The plaintiff’s design defect allegation centered around the practicality and technical feasibility of designing the tractor with a foldable rollover protective system (“ROPS”) when it was manufactured in 1975. The evidence and testimony at trial suggested that the technology was available to design the tractor with a foldable ROPS in 1975, but such a design had not been engineered, proof tested, or field tested to ensure that it was safe and effective. Accordingly, the Appellate Division concluded that there was substantial evidence that it was “not practical or technologically feasible” to design the subject tractor with a folding ROPS in 1975, and as such it was not error to give the “state of the art” jury instruction.

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