MacPherson v Buick Motor Co

MacPherson v Buick Motor Co is a 1916 decision of the New York Court of Appeals, written by Judge Benjamin Cardozo, that founded modern American product liability law. MacPherson bought a Buick automobile from a dealer, not from the manufacturer directly, and was injured when a defective wooden wheel collapsed. Buick argued it owed no duty of care because there was no direct contractual relationship, or privity, between it and MacPherson. Cardozo held that a manufacturer of a product reasonably certain to be dangerous if negligently made owes a duty of care to the ultimate user of the product, not merely to the immediate purchaser, effectively abolishing the privity requirement for negligence claims against manufacturers and shaping the law of negligence and product liability across the United States.