Managers and the Legal Environment 7th Edition by David Madsen, Constance Bagley

Exercise 13

Roy Mercurio drove his Nissan Altima into a tree in the middle of the night at a speed of approximately thirty-five miles per hour. When the car struck the tree, the passenger compartment collapsed, and Mercurio was seriously injured. He was driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol content of at least 0.18%. Mercurio brought a product liability action against Nissan on the grounds that the car was not crashworthy. Nissan argued that the claim should be dismissed, asserting as defenses assumption of risk and unforeseeable misuse of the car in that Mercurio was driving while intoxicated. Mercurio argued that evidence of his blood alcohol level at the time of the accident was irrelevant and should be excluded. How should the court rule? What public policies are at issue here? [Mercurio v. Nissan Motor Corp., 81 F. Supp. 2d 859 (N.D. Ohio 2000).]