Saratoga Fishing Co. v. J. M. Martinac & Co., 520 U.S. 875, 18 (1997)

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892

SARATOGA FISHING CO. v. J. M. MARTINAC & CO.

Scalia, J., dissenting

considered 'property.' " Fox & Loftus, supra, at 265- 266 (footnotes omitted).

And there can of course be combinations of the various rules. For example, one might adopt an "integrated unit" exception to the initial-user rule that the Court announces today.

As I have confessed above, I have little confidence in my ability to make the correct policy choice in an area where courts more experienced than we have not yet come to rest. I would have been inclined to let the lower federal courts struggle with this issue somewhat longer, in the hope that there would develop a common-law consensus to which we could refer for our admiralty rule, as we did in East River. Put to a choice, however, I would not select the rule adopted by the Court today. I would adopt the rule proposed by respondents and define the "product" for purposes of East River's economic-loss rule as the object of the purchaser's bargain. That was essentially the approach followed by the Court of Appeals below, and I would accordingly affirm its judgment.

I respectfully, and indeed diffidently, dissent.

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