Cite as: 520 U. S. 875 (1997)
Scalia, J., dissenting
speaking, of course, of added equipment that itself played no causal role in the accident that caused the physical harm.) Thus the extra skiff, nets, spare parts, and miscellaneous equipment at issue here, added to the ship by a user after an initial sale to that Initial User, are not part of the product (the original ship with the defective hydraulic system) that itself caused the harm.
The decision of the Ninth Circuit is
Reversed.
Justice O'Connor, dissenting.
I do not disagree with our decision to grant certiorari in this case, but I agree with Justice Scalia—and for the reasons he states—that we should affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
Justice Scalia, with whom Justice Thomas joins, dissenting.
In East River S. S. Corp. v. Transamerica Delaval Inc., 476 U. S. 858 (1986), we adopted as part of admiralty law the so-called "economic loss" rule, which denies the purchaser of a defective product a tort action against the seller or manufacturer for purely economic losses sustained as a result of the product's failure. Applying this rule, we held that a plaintiff may not recover in tort when a defective product damages only itself, but may recover for personal injuries and for damage to other property. See id., at 871-875. The present case involves a relative detail of application of the East River holding: whether, and under what circumstances, "other property" can include property added to the defective product, not by the plaintiff-purchaser himself, but by some earlier purchaser in the chain of ownership leading back to the manufacturer. In the context of the present case, the question is whether a skiff, a net, and communications and navigational electronics added by Joseph Madruga to the M/V Saratoga before she was sold to petitioner constitute
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