Los Angeles Team Obtains Summary Judgment in Matter Involving Lensless Eye Shields

(August 2021) - Los Angeles Partners Domineh Fazel and Cary L. Wood recently secured summary judgment in a products liability matter that arose from injuries that the plaintiff sustained while wearing lensless eye shields. In this case, we represented the former distributor of a product. The plaintiff, a firefighter, was playing racquetball and wearing lensless eye shields when the ball struck him in the eye, causing permanent injuries. The plaintiff filed suit against our client, claiming that it was in the chain of distribution and thus liable under a products liability theory. The plaintiff also argued that our client received all of the subject merchandise from a Chinese distributor and thus, the products would not have been in the United States but for our client.

We filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that our client did not distribute the lensless eye shields to the plaintiff, was not in the stream of commerce for the specific lensless eye shields that the plaintiff was wearing at the time of the incident, had stopped all of its business with the manufacturer, and had returned all of its merchandise to the manufacturer prior to the plaintiff’s purchase. Thus, our client was not in the stream of commerce and should not be liable under a products liability theory. The court agreed with our position and granted summary judgment in our favor.