Garman v. Magic Chef, Inc

In Garman v. Magic Chef, Inc. (1981) 117 Cal.App.3d 634, the plaintiffs sued for injuries caused when a cooking stove installed in their motor home exploded. (Id. at p. 636.) There was no dispute that the explosion was not caused by any physical defect in the stove, but rather by a leak from a copper tube that carried propane gas from a tank to the stove, thus "permitting propane gas to leak out and form a pool of flammable vapor." (Id. at pp. 636, 637.) When appellant's wife lit the stove, the escaped gas ignited and caused an explosion and fire. (Id. at pp. 636-637.) The plaintiffs sought to recover against the stove manufacturer on a failure to warn theory, arguing that "the stove manufacturer had a duty to warn that a lighted but properly operating stove might ignite gas leaking from some other place." (Id. at p. 637.) The Court of Appeal rejected the plaintiffs' argument and affirmed summary judgment for the manufacturer. (Garman, supra, 117 Cal.App.3d at pp. 638-639.) The court acknowledged that "a failure to warn may create liability for harm caused by use of an unreasonably dangerous product," but concluded this rule "does not apply to the facts in this case because it was not any unreasonably dangerous condition or feature of respondent's product which caused the injury. To say that the absence of a warning to check for gas leaks in other products makes the stove defective is semantic nonsense." (Id. at p. 638.) The court went on to explain: "The use of any product can be said to involve some risk because of the circumstances surrounding even its normal use. Nonetheless, the makers of such products are not liable under any theory, for merely failing to warn of injury which may befall a person who uses that product in an unsafe place or in conjunction with another product which because of a defect or improper use is itself unsafe." (Ibid.) Because the stove "did not cause or create the risk of harm," the Garman court held that the manufacturer of the stove "was under no duty to warn of the possible defect in the product of another and is not liable for failure to do so." (Id. at pp. 638, 639.)