The Skeen Firm 2023 Holiday Primer - Products Liability at Christmas Time: The Red Ryder BB Gun in "A Christmas Story"

In the heartwarming holiday classic “A Christmas Story,” the quest for the ultimate Christmas gift takes center stage with young Ralphie Parker's desire for a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle. Beyond the comedic allure of Ralphie's pursuit, the film gives us a useful lesson in products liability.

Intended Use:

In products liability cases, generally, there are:

(1)   design defects: (your toaster burns your house down because it was poorly designed to get too hot); and

(2) manufacturing defects (your toaster explodes because during assembly, the well-designed toaster was assembled with the wrong electrical board that made the toaster get too hot).

So, how do you recover from a company when your toaster burns your house down? Luckily for Pennsylvanians, our state holds companies strictly liable (meaning there’s no legal defense) for defective products regardless of whether it’s a manufacturing or design defect, so long as a defective condition exists. Tincher v. Omega-Flex, Inc., 104 A.3d 328, 335 (Pa. 2014). A defective condition exists if [your toaster] is not safe for its intended purpose. Id. at 339.[1]

Yup. The short title of this section is, basically, all you need to know for products liability before contacting an attorney. If you or someone else is injured by a product being used as intended, (i.e. making toast and not sticking a butter knife in your toaster), there is a good chance you can hold the company responsible, responsible.

Although the toaster analogy was fun, let’s get back to A Christmas Story and later some more examples to iron out this “intended use” concept.

How this impacts you:

In the movie, Ralphie gets his Red Ryder when he thought all hope was lost. Excited, he promptly went outside to shoot “Ole Blue”. He put his target up, pulled up the rifle and let one rip, ending up with a BB that hit his glasses and cut him on the cheek.

Was Ralphie using the BB gun and BBs (there are TWO products being used here, not just the gun!) as they were intended to be used? Well, no. While watching the movie, it’s obvious that Ralphie may indeed “shoot his eye out” when he attached his target to a piece of metal. The round BB was never going to stick in or go through that metal, and so Red Ryder/Daisy Co. would not be liable for the BB that hit ole Ralphie. Bonus points to the company if it had a warning of such activity on the box/user manual. And no, you don’t get to use any excuses in court like a “an icicle fell and broke my glasses.”

Now, if Ralphie was shooting at cardboard and the gun somehow blew up or shot the BB backwards and into his face, you’d only have to establish that the barrel or air system was installed backwards, or whatever the defect was that caused Ralphie to get hurt. It doesn’t really matter if it was designed poorly or incorrectly assembled by the “new hire” at the factory in China. The company sold a defective product and is therefore, liable to Ralphie, the consumer, for damages.

As promised, here's some other random examples of non-intended use folks may run into during Christmas time I just made up:

• Your wife can’t sue the company when she burns her thumb with that new hair straightener you got her for Christmas;

• You can’t sue Huffy when your kid takes a tumble on the makeshift ramp he made;

• You can’t sue Muddy if you exceed the weight limit on the $99 deer stand you bought at Walmart and it breaks; and of course,

• You can’t sue Whirlpool or Remington for any injuries you get from falling debris if you take your grampappy’s Model 760 and some Tannerite and yeet your dryer into the stratosphere.

Those got progressively more fun, didn’t they? Now, let’s use those same examples where a products liability action probably exists:

• Your wife’s hair catches on fire because the straightener got hotter than its supposed to;

• Your kid’s Huffy’s brakes malfunctioned, and he’s injured in a wreck;

• Your $99 deer stand you bought at Walmart is missing a weld, broke while you were climbing it, and you fell;

• The factory 150-grain Remington Core-Lokt was loaded way too hot and it blew up your grampappy’s 760, hurting you instead of your dryer.

That’s a wrap:

“A Christmas Story,” provides a humorous lens through which I have now probably forced you to think about products liability for the foreseeable future. Sorry about that. But the film does not take away from safety concerns and using the products how they should be used. That’s certainly something to keep in mind during the holidays. The well-being of your loved ones is paramount, which is why Pennsylvania has strict liability for defective products. If you or someone you know wasn’t being a Ralphie with their Christmas gift and was injured, direct them to an attorney.

*Disclaimer: this article is for informational purposes only. It is not providing legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship.

[1] “Intended use” and “intended purpose” can be different things, but I won’t bore you with that here. For our purposes, we’ll just use “intended use”.