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.
Pineola is an unincorporated community in Avery County, North Carolina; generally spanning out in a three mile radius from the intersection of US highway US 221 and NC 181. The area was originally known as "Saginaw" until the early 20th century. Pineola is the site of several businesses including an asphalt plant, a concrete plant, a sawmill, and a small hotel. The Linville River flows through the area, and is impounded by a dam into a small lake for a resort community. The Blue Ridge Parkway passes through the southeast portion of the area. During the early 1900s it was notably the site of a large logging operation and sawmill, owned by the W.M. Ritter Company. The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad ("Tweetsie") operated into the community until 1939, when it received permission, by the Interstate Commerce Commission, to abandon Pineola.