Robinson v. Reed-Prentice Div. of Package Mack Co

In Robinson v. Reed-Prentice Div. of Package Mack Co., 49 NY2d 471, 479, 403 N.E.2d 440, 426 N.Y.S.2d 717 [1980], the plaintiff, a plastic molding machine operator, was injured when his hand was caught in a machine after his employer had modified the device. The Court of Appeals held that the product, as manufactured, was not defective at the time it left the manufacturer's hands (id. at 480). Although the Court recognized that the manufacturer is under a duty to use reasonable care in designing the product when "used in the manner for which the product was intended as well as unintended yet reasonably foreseeable use" (id.), it stated that the manufacturer's duty "does not extend to designing a product that is impossible to abuse or one whose safety features may not be circumvented. A manufacturer need not incorporate safety features into its product so as to guarantee that no harm will come to every user no matter how careless or even reckless" (id. at 480-481).