Barker v. Lull Engineering Co., Inc

In Barker v. Lull Engineering Co., Inc. (1978) 20 Cal.3d 413, the California Supreme Court explained that a product can be found defective under one of two tests: "A product is defective in design if (1) the plaintiff proves that the product failed to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used in an intended or reasonably foreseeable manner, or (2) the plaintiff proves that the product's design proximately caused injury and the defendant fails to prove, in light of the relevant factors, that on balance the benefits of the challenged design outweigh the risk of danger inherent in such design." The first test, which considers the expectations of the ordinary consumer, is called the consumer expectations test. The second test, which balances the benefits of the challenged design against its risks, is called the risk/benefit test. (Ibid., & see generally id., at p. 432.)