Saratoga Fishing Co. v. J. M. Martinac & Co., 520 U.S. 875, 15 (1997)

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Cite as: 520 U. S. 875 (1997)

Scalia, J., dissenting

warranties covering the entire product; user-sellers will generally not).

The last-402A-seller rule appears to me superior to the initial-user rule adopted by the Court today, but the two are in reality quite similar and will in most cases produce the same result. Each essentially attempts to differentiate between additions made before and after the product has left the market chain of distribution. I doubt, however, whether leaving the market chain of distribution ought to be so momentous an event for the purpose at hand. So long as the plaintiff is a commercial entity (and I understand the rule under consideration to be one applicable only to commercial, as opposed to consumer, transactions, see ante, at 878-879) it seems to me to make no difference whether the purchase was made from a "402A seller" or not. Commercial entities do not typically suffer, at the time they make their purchase, a disparity in bargaining power that makes it impossible for them to obtain warranty protection on the entire product; nor are they unable to insure the product they have purchased, including those portions of it added by upstream owners. Our decision in East River suggests that in such circumstances there is inadequate reason to interfere with private ordering by importing tort liability—that is, inadequate reason to permit the purchaser to recover any tort damages for loss of the product he purchased. See East River, 476 U. S., at 872-873.

In recognition of that reality, an impressive line of lower court decisions, applying both federal and state law, has held that the purchaser of a product damaged by a defective component cannot recover in tort against the manufacturer of the component on the theory that the remainder of the product is "other property." See, e. g., Pulte Home Corp. v. Osmose Wood Preserving, Inc., 60 F. 3d 734, 741-742 (CA11 1995) (Florida law); American Eagle Ins. Co. v. United Technologies Corp., 48 F. 3d 142, 144-145 (CA5 1995) (Texas law);

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