Products Liability Law Reporter

A federal district court held that two baby food retailers were not liable to the parents of a child allegedly injured after consuming baby food containing heavy metals.

Here, the parents of a young child who allegedly was injured after consuming baby food containing heavy metals sued baby food manufacturers and the retailers Amazon.com and Whole Foods, alleging negligence. Amazon and Whole Foods moved to dismiss.

Granting the motion, the court found that under applicable Louisiana law, a nonmanufacturing seller of a defective product is not responsible for tort damages absent a showing the seller should have known the product was defective and failed to declare this. The court added that a nonmanufacturing seller also is not required to inspect a product before its sale to determine possible defects. Thus, the court said, the defendants, who were retail sellers and not manufacturers of the allegedly defective baby food at issue, could not have breached a duty to the plaintiffs’ son as a matter of law.

The court also rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that the defendants were liable under a theory of negligent performance of undertaking based on their status as service providers engaged in the business of curating, testing, and monitoring goods. The plaintiffs have merely made conclusory assertions unaccompanied by any facts allowing the court to draw a plausible inference that the defendants had agreed to test and monitor the products, the court reasoned.

Citation: In re Baby Food Prods. Liab. Litig., 2024 WL 3522050 (N.D. Cal. July 23, 2024).