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.
Columbia is a city located primarily in Monroe County, Illinois, about 12 miles (19 km) south of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 7,922 at the 2000 census.