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.
Millwood is a hamlet located in the town of New Castle, New York in Westchester County. It was originally settled as Sarlesville. The area now known as Millwood appears on 19th century maps as Merritt's Corners (now the intersection of Rtes. 100 and 120) and Rockdale Mills (close to what is now the Briarcliff Manor border). As of the 2000 census, the community had a population of 1,210. Vanessa Williams grew up in Millwood and currently lives in New Castle's other hamlet of Chappaqua.