OCM Partner David Mack Quoted in Lawyers Weekly

OCM partner David Mack appeared on the cover of the July 8, 2019 edition of Lawyers Weekly concerning the 1st Circuit’s decision in AcBel Polytech, Inc. v. Fairchild Semiconductor Int’l, Inc.  The case involved a claim against a manufacturer who sold an allegedly defective product to the plaintiff.  The defendant successfully argued at trial that it could not be liable for the defect because industry standard testing could not have uncovered the flaw in the product.  The First Circuit reversed, holding that the industry standard testing defense did not apply in defective product cases where the only damage was to the product itself, in contrast to defective products causing personal injury.

In the article, David notes that the First Circuit’s opinion is groundbreaking and could have a significant impact in other jurisdictions: “This appears to be a groundbreaking decision in that no court had used that distinction to cast aside the manufacturer’s reasonable treating defense. It will be interesting to see if other courts take the 1st Circuit’s lead.”