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.
Helen is an unincorporated community in Releigh County, West Virginia, United States. West Virginia Route 16 and railroad tracks run right through the community. The Helen mine and coal camp was opened in the 1910's by the East Gulf Coal Company. Many years later, the mine was operated by the Koppers Coal company, which then became the Eastern Gas & Fuel - Coal Division, and even later Eastern Associated Coal Company. Eastern Associated operated the Helen mine into the 1980's. Today, Helen remains a small, unincorporated area in southern West Virginia. There is a Protestant church there.