Ibrahim Boumelhem, aged four, began playing with a Bic disposable lighter that his parents had purchased. He started a fire that burned his legs and severely burned his six-month-old brother over 85 percent of his body. Ibrahim’s father sued Bic, claiming that the lighter was negligently designed because it could have been childproof. He also claimed failure to warn because the lighter did not clearly warn of the danger to children.

The Boumelhem court considered evidence and analyses from several other cases against Bic. The court noted that consumers use over 500 million disposable lighters annually in the United States. Each lighter provides 1,000 to 2,000 lights. During one three-year period, children playing with disposable lighters started 8,100 fires annually, causing an average of 180 people to die every year, of whom 140 were children under five. Another 990 people were injured. The average annual cost of deaths, injuries, and property damage from child-play fires was estimated at $310 to $375 million, or 60 to 75 cents per lighter sold. Bic had acknowledged in earlier litigation that it was foreseeable lighters would get into children’s hands and injure them. Bic had also agreed that it was feasible to make a more child-resistant lighter.

The trial court relied on a Michigan case. In Adams v. Perry Furniture Co., four minor children had died in a fire started when one of them was playing with a Bic lighter. The Adams court had found no negligent design and no failure to warn, and it dismissed all claims. The trial court in the present case followed Adams and dismissed Boumelhem’s claims. He appealed. 

Questions:

1. Did Bic negligently design its disposable lighter? Did Bic negligently fail to warn of the lighter’s dangers?

2. In negligence cases concerning goods, plaintiffs typically raise what 3 issues?

3. What is the test in design defect cases?