Johnson v. American Standard, Inc. (2008) 43 Cal.4th 56

In this case, in which Horvitz & Levy LLP participated on behalf of various amici curiae, the California Supreme Court unanimously adopted the “sophisticated user" doctrine in failure to warn cases. (Read the Johnson decision.) The doctrine negates a manufacturer's duty to warn of a potential danger posed by a product where the plaintiff has, or should have had, advance knowledge of a product's inherent hazards.

William Keith Johnson was a trained and certified heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technician. He claimed that various chemical suppliers and manufacturers and HVAC manufacturers should have warned him that servicing an air conditioner evaporator would create harmful phosgene gas, a danger he claimed not to know about. The Court of Appeal affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants, on the ground they had no duty to warn of a danger generally known or reasonably expected to be known by members of Johnson's profession.

The California Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision and adopted the sophisticated user doctrine as an outgrowth of the "obvious and known danger" rule. The Court held that the sophisticated user doctrine applies equally to negligence and strict liability failure to warn claims, and that the focus should be on "whether the plaintiff knew, or should have known, of the particular risk of harm from the product giving rise to the injury." The Court acknowledged that, under this standard, "there will be some users who were actually unaware of the dangers. However, the same could be said of the currently accepted obvious danger rule; obvious dangers are obvious to most, but are not obvious to absolutely everyone." Finally, a sophisticated user's knowledge of the risk should be measured "from the time of the plaintiff's injury, rather than from the date the product was manufactured."

Horvitz & Levy LLP filed an amicus brief in support of American Standard on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, American Chemistry Council, American International Companies, Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, ExxonMobil, and Honeywell International, Inc. The amicus brief was cited in the Supreme Court’s opinion, and Horvitz & Levy’s role was discussed in The International Association of Defense Counsel’s report on the decision.

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