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.
West Branch is a city in Cedar and Johnson counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 2,188 at the 2000 census. The Johnson County portion of West Branch is part of the Iowa City, Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area.