—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 1,1977
110
Product liability threatens agribusinesses
Senators Richard Snyder, left, from Lancaster and Franklin Kury, Sunbury,
flank Penn Ag’s executive secretary Donald Park. The three discussed insurance
and tax issues as they pertain to Pennsylvania agribusiness.
LANCASTER - The irony
of questionable product
liability suits is they tend to
stifle development of newer
and safer products, Richard
Goldberg told the 99th an
nual PennAg Industries
Association convention last
week at the Host Corral.
PennAg is a trade
association of more than 400
Pennsylvania agri-business
firms.
Goldberg, a lawyer and
president of the Goldberg
Feed & Gram Co., West
Fargo, N.D., is a vigorous
campaigner for product
liability reform.
“If the disaster in product
liability is allowed to con
tinue,” Goldberg said,
“we’re going to see jobs
disappearing. One company
in my state closed its door
when their product liability
insurance premiums turned
out to be more than their net
earnings for last year.
“I know of two other
companies that have shut
down because they couldn’t
afford the skyrocKetmg cost
of product liability in
surance,” he said.
The North Dakotan notea
that $2.6 billion and $2.5
billion dollars were paid
during 1974 and 1975,
respectively, as a result of
product liability suits.
“People are demanding
more safety and better
products, and the judicial
system is providing the
climate for suing,” Goldberg
exclaimed. He faults the
judicial branch of govern
ment for the run-away
problem but charges the
other two branches of
government for failing to do
anything to stop it.
Goldberg’s primary
suggestion for curing the
problem is for
agribusinessmen to get out
and talk about the situation.
There are 40 state
legislatures across the
country considering bills to
put limits on product
liability suits, including
Pennsylvania, Goldberg
said
Pennsylvania Senate Bill
585 was one of the topics
discussed by a three
member panel composed of
Sens. Franklin Kury, a
Democrat from Sunbury;
Richard Snyder, Republican
from Lancaster, and
moderator Donald W. Parke,
Penn Ag’s executive vice
president.
Snyder said the product
liability situation would not
be in the mess it’s in if the
Supreme Court hadn’t
written the doctrine of strict
liability. Under that doc
trine, manufactures can be
held responsible for just
about anything that can go
wrong at any tune after the
product was made, whether
or not the user is at fault, has
altered the product or has
ignored instructions for use,
he said.
Kury said his impression
of Senate Bill 585 is that it
deals with a problem that
must be solved, but he said
there needs to be a balance
between the rights of con
sumers and the rights of
manufacturers.
Parke pointed out that the
bill would not allow suits to
be brought under the doc-
trine of strict liability, M
would place time limits foiy
brmging suits, it woulyi
prohibit punitive damaged
and it would limit attornera
fees, among othe/'i
provisions.
Accordmg to Snyder, the
product liability bill has not
yet moved through the
Senate, and before it does, n
will likely be amended in a
Fashion not liked by in
dustry. He did not elaborate
In other areas of
discussion before the Pen ■
nAg group, Snyder wash
critical of the way Penn[
sylvania’s state budget is|
handled, and added op
position to any proposals tort
a tax increase. He exclaimed ['
(Continued on Page 112)
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