Products liability doctrine holds a manufacturer, or other party involved in selling a product, strictly liable when an article, placed into the market with knowledge that it is to be used without inspection for defects, proves to have a defect that causes a personal injury. Consumers who are injured because of a fault with a product that the consumers had no ability to protect themselves against may recover against the manufacturer under a theory of products liability.
Maricopa is a rural town in Kern County, California, United States. Maricopa is located 6.5 miles (10 km) south-southeast of Taft, at an elevation of 883 feet (269 m). The population was 1,111 at the 2000 census. Maricopa lies at the junction of Route 166 and Route 33. The Carrizo Plain is northwest of the town, and the enormous Midway-Sunset Oil Field, the third largest oil field in the United States, is adjacent to the town on the north and east. With only one Shell gasoline station, Subway, Maricopa Inn, and a preschool-through-12th grade school, Maricopa is a fairly small town in the southwest San Joaquin Valley which retains its rural country flavor.