A little ot but not much.

Saw this while looking up 3400 stuff and was a little surprised. Hope I can link this without getting in trouble.

https://casetext.com/case/craig-v-ford-motor-company

How long is a company liable for a product? Where is consumer accountability?

Not wanting a heated discussion at all just interesting. Somewhere along the line we learned some common sense even though I don't have the market cornered. I guess if something happened to me I hope my wife would understand I knew I was taking a risk voluntarily in my hobby.

The gist is that someone ground started a 3400 and the switch was either bypassed or transmission was worn to where it still started and the tractor killed him. I feel for the family but suing seems a little extreme.
 
I've been around many 3-cylinder Fords that have had the neutral safety switch bypassed because it no longer worked correctly. Even on a good day, finding the neutral sweet spot on these machines has always been somewhat difficult to find in my opinion. However, this situation has always left the tractor unable to start, and NOT in a situation where the tractor would start in gear. In summary, if the wiring had not been bypassed, no-one would have been killed, period.

As soon as someone bypasses the neutral safety switch, they release all liability from the manufacturer in my opinion. Their claim that the costs to repair it to proper operation as being "economically prohibitive" is bogus if you're comparing any such costs to that of a human life.
 
It appears reading it that it seems ford lost or at least they had enough to go to trial.

How far back can people go back to sue? Would support not building something that lasts to protect yourself.
 
(quoted from post at 18:52:31 01/01/17) In summary, if the wiring had not been bypassed, no-one would have been killed, period.

As soon as someone bypasses the neutral safety switch, they release all liability from the manufacturer in my opinion. Their claim that the costs to repair it to proper operation as being "economically prohibitive" is bogus if you're comparing any such costs to that of a human life.

Well said, Bern!
 
(quoted from post at 20:15:10 01/01/17) It appears reading it that it seems ford lost or at least they had enough to go to trial.

How far back can people go back to sue? Would support not building something that lasts to protect yourself.

The document in the link was just the judge's ruling on Ford's motion for summary judgement, which means that Ford tried to persuade the judge that there were facts that were not contestable that should preclude the case form going to trial. The judge ruled that the "facts" that Ford presented in their motion for summary judgement were contestable, so the case would proceed to trial.

The fact that the ruling is from 2005 and I can't find any final, ruling on the case itself suggests that there was a settlement reached by the parties before any final ruling was made by the court.

As to the length of time that product liability lawsuits can be brought, that is set state-by-state by individual state laws. This particular case was brought in Oklahoma, which has a time limit of 2 years after the injury occurred for the plaintiff to bring the case (file it), but the law does not appear have any limitation on how old the product might be for the manufacturer to still be liable.
 

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