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.
Mattoon is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,291 as of the 2000 census. It is a principal city of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area. Mattoon was the site of the "Mad Gasser" attacks of the 1940s.