Banks v. Ici Americas, Inc.

264 Ga. 732 (1994)

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Facts

Ps administrators of the estate of Marlo Strum brought suit against a local boy's club, a pest control company, and D, the manufacturer of a rodenticide called 'Talon-G.' Ps sued D under both negligence and strict liability theories, alleging that Talon-G was defectively designed and had been inadequately labeled. Marlo died from ingesting an unknown amount of Talon-G. Marlo found the poison in a cabinet in an unmarked container at the boy's club serviced by the pest control company. Ps presented expert evidence at trial that D could have added an emetic or an aversive agent to the poison that would have no effect on the product as a rat poison. Rats cannot vomit, so an emetic would be of no consequence, but it would induce immediate vomiting in a child. The aversive would have made the poison unpalatable to a child, but with no effect on rats. The jury found against D and awarded Ps, in addition to compensatory damages (set off against amounts received from the other defendants), punitive damages in the amount of $1 million. The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment on the basis that the evidence was not sufficient to support a finding that Talon-G was defectively or negligently designed and that Ps' failure to warn claim was preempted by Federal law. Ps appealed.

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