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.
Chatham is a village in Sangamon County, Illinois, United States. The population was 8,583 at the 2000 census. A special census conducted in 2005 put the population at 10,260. The village lies along the original alignment of historic U.S. Route 66. Chatham is part of the Springfield, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.