Shanks v. Upjohn
Alaska Supreme Court
835 P.2d 1189 (1992)
- Written by Liz Nakamura, JD
Facts
Harvey Rice’s doctor prescribed Rice Xanax. After taking the Xanax, Rice committed suicide. Sharon Shanks (plaintiff), the personal representative of Rice’s estate, filed a strict-products-liability action against Upjohn Company (Upjohn) (defendant), the manufacturer of Xanax, alleging that Xanax was (1) defective in its design (the design-defect claim) and (2) defective because it failed to contain adequate warnings that Xanax could cause suicidal ideations (the failure-to-warn claim). Upjohn countered, arguing that, as a prescription-drug manufacturer, it was exempt from Shanks’s design-defect claim. The trial court agreed and dismissed Shanks’s design-defect claim. Shanks’s failure-to-warn claim proceeded to trial. At trial, the trial judge instructed the jury on negligent failure to warn instead of strict-liability failure to warn. The jury ruled for Upjohn. Shanks appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court, arguing that the trial court had erred by dismissing her strict-liability design-defect claim and by incorrectly instructing the jury on the failure-to-warn claim.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Moore, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 899,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 47,000 briefs, keyed to 994 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.
