## Facts

- James Mikolajczyk was stopped at a traffic light in a Ford Escort when an intoxicated driver struck the Escort from behind at about 60 mph.
- The Escort’s driver’s seat collapsed rearward, and Mikolajczyk’s head struck the backseat.
- Mikolajczyk suffered severe brain injuries and died after several days on life support.
- Connie Mikolajczyk, individually and as special administrator of his estate, sued the intoxicated driver for negligence and sued Ford (vehicle manufacturer) and Mazda (seat manufacturer) in strict products liability for defective design of the driver’s seat (crashworthiness).
- The negligence claim against the driver resulted in summary judgment; the design-defect claims against Ford and Mazda proceeded to jury trial.
- The parties presented extensive evidence comparing “yielding” (collapsible) seats and more rigid seat designs, including alleged safety tradeoffs and alternative designs.
- Over defendants’ objection, the court instructed the jury using the Illinois Pattern Jury Instruction definition of “unreasonably dangerous” framed in consumer-expectation terms, rather than a separate, stand-alone risk-utility instruction.
- The jury found the seat unreasonably dangerous, awarded $27 million in damages, and apportioned responsibility 60% to the intoxicated driver and 40% to Ford and Mazda.

## Issues

1. In an Illinois strict products liability design-defect case, whether the jury must be instructed under a stand-alone risk-utility test rather than the IPI “unreasonably dangerous” instruction stated in consumer-expectation language.
2. Whether, under the IPI instruction, the jury may consider risk-utility evidence (including feasible alternative designs, costs, and overall safety consequences) when deciding whether a product is unreasonably dangerous.
3. Whether the instructions as a whole adequately stated Illinois design-defect law for a complex crashworthiness claim involving an automobile seat.

## Decision

- The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the liability judgment against Ford and Mazda.
- The court held that the IPI definition of “unreasonably dangerous” remains a correct statement of Illinois law for design-defect strict liability cases.
- The court ruled that a separate, stand-alone risk-utility instruction is not required, even for complex product designs.
- The court confirmed that risk-utility and alternative-design evidence is admissible and may be weighed by the jury in deciding whether the product was unreasonably dangerous under the IPI instruction.
- The trial court did not err by refusing defendants’ proposed risk-utility instruction because the given instructions, viewed as a whole, properly conveyed the governing standard.

## Legal Principles

- Illinois employs a unified strict-liability concept of “unreasonably dangerous”; consumer-expectation and risk-utility operate as methods of proof within that single inquiry.
- The IPI definition (dangerous beyond what an ordinary consumer would contemplate, with ordinary community knowledge of the product’s characteristics) is sufficient for submitting a design-defect claim to the jury.
- Risk-utility considerations—such as feasible alternative designs, relative costs, and the overall safety consequences of design choices—may be presented and considered without converting the case into a different legal “test” requiring separate instructions.
- A product is “unreasonably dangerous” only when used in a reasonably foreseeable manner; in crashworthiness cases, foreseeable use includes involvement in collisions, including rear-end impacts.

## Conclusion

The court sustained the use of the standard IPI “unreasonably dangerous” instruction in an automotive crashworthiness design-defect case and held that, although the parties may litigate risk-utility and alternative-design evidence extensively, Illinois law does not require a separate risk-utility jury instruction because both consumer-expectation and risk-utility evidence inform the same unreasonably-dangerous determination.


Mikolajczyk v. Ford Motor Co., 901 N.E.2d 329 (Ill. 2008)