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.
Rippon is an unincorporated hamlet in Jefferson County, West Virginia south of Charles Town. The village of Rippon developed in the mid-1800s at the crossroads of the Berryville and Charles Town Turnpike (Route 340), Withers-LaRue Road, and Myetstown Road. A number of farms with large old homes still surround the village, as they have since the earliest settlement in the county. According to the 2000 census, the town has a population of 223. The town was named after nearby Ripon Lodge, although an extra "P" was added to avoid confusion with a town in Wisconsin.