## Facts

- A commercial passenger aircraft operated by American Airlines crashed near LaGuardia Airport, killing passenger Edith Feis.
- The estate’s administratrix sued Lockheed Aircraft Corp. (aircraft manufacturer) and Kollsman Instrument Corp. (altimeter supplier), alleging defects caused the crash.
- The claims against Lockheed and Kollsman were pleaded as breaches of implied warranties of merchantability and fitness, not limited to negligence.
- The pleadings did not specify where the plane or altimeter were manufactured or sold; the administratrix was appointed by a New York court.
- The trial court applied New York law as the place of the accident, held privity was required for implied-warranty claims, and dismissed the warranty causes of action against both manufacturers.
- The intermediate appellate court affirmed; the Court of Appeals granted review to address the privity requirement in warranty actions.

## Issues

1. Whether a manufacturer’s implied warranty of merchantability/fitness runs to intended users who lack contractual privity with the manufacturer.
2. If so, whether that nonprivity implied-warranty duty extends to both the finished-product manufacturer (aircraft maker) and a component manufacturer (altimeter supplier).
3. Whether New York law or California law should govern the implied-warranty claims.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals held that a manufacturer’s implied warranty of fitness/merchantability may run to intended users despite the absence of privity.
- The court applied New York law and concluded New York’s developing warranty doctrine permitted a nonprivity action without borrowing California law.
- The court extended implied-warranty liability to Lockheed as the aircraft manufacturer.
- The court declined, on these facts, to extend nonprivity implied-warranty liability to Kollsman as the component manufacturer, leaving dismissal as to Kollsman in place.

## Legal Principles

- In New York, privity is not an absolute bar to an implied-warranty claim by an intended user injured by a defective product.
- Passengers are intended users of a commercial aircraft; the aircraft manufacturer’s implied warranties of merchantability and fitness run to them.
- Courts may differentiate between the finished-product manufacturer and upstream component suppliers when defining the scope of nonprivity implied-warranty liability, particularly where the finished-product maker is best positioned to select, test, and integrate components.
- Where New York law supports the result, New York courts need not adopt another jurisdiction’s law to eliminate a privity barrier in implied-warranty claims.

## Conclusion

The Court of Appeals recognized that airplane passengers may sue the aircraft manufacturer for breach of implied warranties without contractual privity under New York law, but it declined to impose the same nonprivity implied-warranty liability on the component manufacturer in the circumstances presented.


Goldberg v. Kollsman Instrument Corp., 12 N.Y.2d 432, 240 N.Y.S.2d 592, 191 N.E.2d 81 (N.Y. 1963)