I must redirect the question to you, as what qualifications do you have as a Distributor?
That was quite rude of me. Let me have the opportunity to rephrase.
Assuming, as you have spoken, that you are a Litigator from Canada, and involving Pharmaceuticals. Before you would even get any wiff of a situation happening, the situation would have bounced back any forth between companies. CEOs will get involved. Tests would have been done by independent laboratories. People like myself would be involved in negotiating the facts, the results, and the liabilities between the companies.
People like yourself are only contacted after the fact, to disperse liability costs, as dictated by the Courts.
I am a Canadian litigator, and in fact on Monday afternoon I am setting a trial date for the fall in a medical malpractice matter that includes distributor and a manufacturer as defendants. Shall we take it that you are not a Canadian litigator?
Yes. And shall we take it that you are not an American Distributor?
If the manufacturer and distributor are negligent, then they are guilty as Hell, and should pay. I offer no condolences to shady distributors. They give us all a bad name. I wish you good luck, and good facts, in your case.
But how does this apply to the current thread?
:smack: You have no comprenhension of the role of persons such as myself. By all means fill us in on whatever it is that you distribute, and how you go about distributing it, but please keep clear of Canadian medical malpractice.
It was a direct answer to your specific question – the question which you put forward rather than answering my question to you as to whether or not you are a Canadian litigator. Given that the thread asks a specific question concerning Canadian litigation, one would hope that people setting out opinions as to liability, such as yourself, would be qualified to do so.
As stated before, I am an employee of an American company that distributes small electronic components. Some of our direct customers are private citizens, while most of our customers are small, medium, and large businesses that either resell our products to their customer, or incorporate our raw materials into other products.
If a product fails “In The Field”, in other words, on the Production Floor, we are the first to be contacted, somewhat because we are the Distributor that sold them the product, but mostly because the Manufacturers rarely offer contact information for such an occurrence.
Oh, I understand your role in such an occurrence. What I’m saying is that before you are even contacted, much haggling and negotiations have already taken place. A person such as yourself is only contacted in the most grievous of circumstance, and only after all other outcomes have been exhausted.
I answered your question as far as not being a Canadian Litigator. I also provided my experience from the other side of the fence, the Field of Distribution. Since we are talking about the distribution of Pharmaceuticals, I am offering inside knowledge on how Distribution works, for those who may not be knowledgeable in this field.
I did address the subject of Liability, several times, in examples. As it applies to Pharmaceuticals that provide life saving drugs, I would not trust my own life to a drug that was bought and resold several times before it got to me. But then again, I don’t have much of a choice.
Both points are completely incorrect, legally speaking. First, every distributor in the a product’s distribution stream is equally liable for selling a defective product. If I get injured by a defective widget, I can sue the store that sold it to me, the distributor that sold it to the store, and the company that manufactured it. Really and truly. Products Liability 101.
Second, you know who gets to decide what the standards are and whether your company meets them? The jury, that’s who. Not you, not me, not the judge, but 12 citizens who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.
I guess I should have specified that we don’t tamper with the products that we sell. Most of the time, they aren’t even removed from the OEM’s packaging. So, no, the company that I work for would not be held liable. Someone may try to hold us liable, but it would not hold up.
As far as the Jury statement, are you just going to start throwing lawsuits around until one sticks? Or, are you going to follow the logical Paper Trail that I mentioned in an earlier post?
Which brings me back to the topic of this thread. In the case of Grandpa dying as a direct cause of tainted medication (tampered, or otherwise), you would start at Grandpa’s medicine cabinet and work backwards until you found the breakdown in the system. If that leads you all the way back to the original Pharmaceutical company, so be it. That location is the location that you take to court.
The difficult part is that, what if the liable culprit is some little outfit located in Taiwan? Then you have to get International stuff rolling. Fortunately, I’ve never had to deal with that, but I can see how it would become a major headache.
Doesn’t matter. If you sold it, the law holds you accountable. Really. Seriously. I am not making this up.
Let me be the first to say how sorry I am for your loss. Were you close with Garnpa? Time helps. Take care.