## Facts

- A travel service arranged airport transportation for Ava Pattee Allenberg and her daughter, Gwinn Norman, in a used shuttle bus purchased from Arkansas Bus Exchange Corp., a commercial seller of new and used shuttle buses.
- The bus ran a red light and collided with other vehicles in an intersection.
- The passengers, seated without seat belts, were thrown from their seats and injured; Ava Allenberg later died from injuries sustained in the collision.
- Norman was injured and later died of causes unrelated to the collision; representatives of both estates pursued claims.
- Plaintiffs asserted manufacturers’ products liability against Arkansas Bus, alleging the shuttle bus was defective and unreasonably dangerous due to design-related conditions, including lack of seat belts, inadequate handholds, and unsecured luggage compartments.
- Arkansas Bus denied liability, asserting it did not design, manufacture, produce, alter, change, or modify the bus and sold it in essentially the same condition as acquired.
- The trial court granted summary judgment to Arkansas Bus on the strict products liability claims, and plaintiffs appealed seeking to extend manufacturers’ products liability to a commercial seller of used products.

## Issues

1. Whether Oklahoma manufacturers’ products liability applies to a commercial seller of a used product when the alleged defect was not created by the seller and the product was sold in essentially the same condition as acquired for resale.

## Decision

- The Oklahoma Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for Arkansas Bus.
- The court held that manufacturers’ products liability is inapplicable to a commercial seller of a used product when the seller did not create the alleged defect and resold the product essentially unchanged.
- The court declined to extend strict liability to a used-product dealer for design-related conditions attributable to the original manufacture where the dealer did not alter or contribute to the condition.

## Legal Principles

- Oklahoma manufacturers’ products liability does not extend to a commercial seller of used goods when:
  - the alleged defect was not created by the seller; and
  - the product is sold in essentially the same condition as when acquired for resale.
- Strict products liability is aimed primarily at entities in the production and initial distribution chain that are positioned to control design, manufacturing, or the introduction of defective conditions.
- A used-product dealer who merely passes the product along as received, without creating, altering, or aggravating the alleged defect, is not strictly liable for design-related defects existing at manufacture.

## Conclusion

The court held that Oklahoma’s strict manufacturers’ products liability doctrine does not apply to a used-bus dealer that neither created nor altered the alleged design defects and resold the bus essentially as acquired, and it affirmed summary judgment for the seller.


Allenberg v. Bentley Hedges Travel Serv., Inc., 22 P.3d 223 (Okla. 2001)