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.
Pontiac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan named after the Ottawa Chief Pontiac. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 66,337. It is the county seat of Oakland County. Considered a satellite city of Detroit, it is surrounded by affluent Metro Detroit suburbs. The city is best-known for its General Motors manufacturing plants (GM's primary truck plant was formerly in Pontiac) and the GM automobile brand, Pontiac, which was first produced in and named after the city. Also of note is the Pontiac Silverdome, the stadium that hosted the Detroit Lions from 1975 until 2002 when they moved back to Downtown Detroit. On February 20, 2009 the State of Michigan placed the city into receivership, and the Department of Treasury appointed Fred Leeb the city's emergency financial manager in March 2009.