Loop v. Litchfield

351 (1870)[1] was a part of the historic line of cases holding that the privity requirement barred a products liability action unless the product in question was "inherently dangerous."

A manufacturer negligently made a small balance wheel for use on a circular saw.

The manufacturer pointed out the defect in the wheel to the buyer, who wished to purchase a cheap article and was willing to assume the risk of the defect.

The buyer then loaned the saw to a neighbor who used it and, five years after the manufacture, was killed when the wheel flew apart.

Three years later, in Losee v. Clute, the plaintiff was injured by a defective steam boiler; the court decided that this, too, was an ordinary object, not an inherently dangerous one."