Can Implied Warranty Claims Proceed In A Products Liability Setting?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and New Jersey's Supreme Court issued a series of decisions in 2020 that undercut the preemptive effect of New Jersey's Products Liability Act (PLA) with respect to implied warranties. On its face, the PLA suggests that only claims pursuant to the act and claims for breach of express warranties can be brought. As a result of the Sun Chemical v. Fike decisions, a carveout now exists for implied warranty claims that are based on a defendant's alleged express or affirmative misrepresentations, i.e. misrepresentations that a product would have a certain feature, rather than as to the defective nature of the product itself. See Sun Chemical v. Fike, 981 F.3d 231, 235 (3d Cir. 2020); Sun Chemical v. Fike, 243 N.J. 319, 324 (2020). There has been minimal treatment of the issue since 2020, but that limited body of case law provides some guidance regarding this potential avenue of exposure.