Greiner v. Volkswagenwerk AG
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
429 F.Supp. 495 (1977)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Thelma Greiner (plaintiff) was a passenger in a car manufactured by Volkswagenwerk AG (Volkswagen) (defendant). Judith Nickel was driving the car the wrong way down a street when Nickel swerved to avoid the oncoming traffic. After the swerve, the car headed directly toward a concrete bridge railing at a speed between 30 and 60 miles per hour. Rather than crash into the railing, Nickel quickly swerved again, resulting in the car rolling over and injuring Greiner. Greiner brought a products-liability suit against Volkswagen in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging, among other things, a failure to warn of the car’s propensity to roll over on sharp turns. The district court declined to instruct the jury on Greiner’s failure-to-warn claim. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Volkswagen. Greiner appealed the district court’s decision to withhold the failure-to-warn issue from the jury. The court of appeals vacated the judgment and remanded the case to the district court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Lord III, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 803,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
