Potential Liability For Design Defect In Use Of Button Cell Batteries

A recent Report and Recommendation by a Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania may serve as a warning to companies that manufacture and supply products containing button cell batteries of potential personal injury liability for design defect claims.  

In Punch v. Dollar Tree Stores, Inc., et al., Civil Action No. 12-154 (W.D. Pa.), the plaintiffs, Tony and Jennie Punch, sued for injuries resulting from their six-day-old infant son Lincoln's ingestion of two 11.6 mm button cell alkaline batteries. Lincoln ingested the button cell batteries after his three-year-old sister removed the batteries from a pair of lighted tweezers and fed them to him. Following discovery, the defendants filed motions for summary judgment asserting, among other things, that the plaintiffs' design defect and failure to warn claims were inadequate as a matter of law. In her Report and Recommendation entered on February 17, 2017, Magistrate