§ 29-28-102 — Chapter definitions

As used in this chapter unless the context otherwise requires: (1) "Anticipated life." The anticipated life of a product shall be determined by the expiration date placed on the product by the manufacturer when required by law but shall not commence until the date the product was first purchased for use or consumption; (2) "Defective condition" means a condition of a product that renders it unsafe for normal or anticipatable handling and consumption; (3) "Employer" means any person exercising legal supervisory control or guidance of users or consumers of products; (4) "Manufacturer" means the designer, fabricator, producer, compounder, processor or assembler of any product or its component parts; (5) "Product" means any tangible object or goods produced; (6) "Product liability action" for purposes of this chapter includes all actions brought for or on account of personal injury, death or property damage caused by or resulting from the manufacture, construction, design, formula, preparation, assembly, testing, service, warning, instruction, marketing, packaging or labeling of any product. "Product liability action" includes, but is not limited to, all actions based upon the following theories: strict liability in tort; negligence; breach of warranty, express or implied; breach of or failure to discharge a duty to warn or instruct, whether negligent, or innocent; misrepresentation, concealment, or nondisclosure, whether negligent, or innocent; or under any other substantive legal theory in tort or contract whatsoever; (7) "Seller" includes a retailer, wholesaler, or distributor, and means any individual or entity engaged in the business of selling a product, whether such sale is for resale, or for use or consumption. "Seller" also includes a lessor or bailor engaged in the business of leasing or bailment of a product; and (8) "Unreasonably dangerous" means that a product is dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by the ordinary consumer who purchases it, with the ordinary knowledge common to the community as to its characteristics, or that the product because of its dangerous condition would not be put on the market by a reasonably prudent manufacturer or seller, assuming that the manufacturer or seller knew of its dangerous condition.

Legislative History

Acts 1978, ch. 703, § 2; T.C.A., § 23-3702; modified.