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.
Cottage Grove is a city located 8 miles (12.5 km) south of Saint Paul in Washington County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies on the north bank of the Mississippi River, north of a backwash from the confluence with the Saint Croix River. Cottage Grove and nearby suburbs form the southeast portion of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the sixteenth largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.2 million residents. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 33,081 in 2007. The city is a bedroom community of Saint Paul and to a lesser extent Minneapolis linked by U.S. Routes 10 and 61. Once a rural township known for the state's first creameries and wheat production, the area was served by rail lines, river shipping, and grist mills. The primary settlers were from New England and left their architectural influence, which is preserved today. Formerly containing the railway station village of Langdon, the entire township incorporated into Cottage Grove in 1963. New Englander James Sullivan Norris, an early farmer, called his homestead Cottage Grove which was adopted by the town.