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.
Suffolk is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. By area, it is the largest of the Seven Cities of Hampton Roads, and the largest independent city in land-area in the entire Commonwealth. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 63,677. A more recent 2007 census estimate shows that the city's population has grown to 81,332, and its median household income was $57,546. It has the smallest population of all the seven cities.