## Facts

- Two-year-old Jerome Campbell pulled his mother’s purse from the top of a refrigerator and removed a Cricket disposable butane cigarette lighter.
- The lighter lacked child-resistant features; Jerome ignited it, allegedly starting an apartment fire.
- The fire killed Jerome, his mother, and another child; one child survived.
- The estates and a surviving minor sued the lighter’s manufacturers and distributors, alleging negligence, strict products liability, breach of the implied warranty of merchantability, and seeking punitive damages.
- Plaintiffs claimed feasible child-resistant designs existed and defendants knew children could obtain and ignite the lighters.

## Issues

1. Whether 13 Pa.C.S. § 2318 extends implied warranty protection to a non-purchasing child household member who was an unintended user of the lighter.
2. Whether a disposable cigarette lighter without child-resistant features is unmerchantable under 13 Pa.C.S. § 2314 because a small child could ignite it and cause injury.
3. Whether the evidence supported a jury question on punitive damages based on alleged reckless indifference to consumer safety.

## Decision

- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the Superior Court’s decision allowing the implied-warranty and punitive-damages claims to proceed.
- The Court held that, even assuming the child qualified as a § 2318 warranty beneficiary, plaintiffs failed to show the lighter was unfit for its “ordinary purposes” under § 2314.
- The Court held the evidence was insufficient, as a matter of law, to support punitive damages under Pennsylvania’s “outrageous conduct” standard.
- Summary judgment for defendants was reinstated on the implied warranty of merchantability and punitive damages claims.

## Legal Principles

- Under 13 Pa.C.S. § 2318, implied warranties may extend to certain non-purchasing household members or guests who may reasonably be expected to use, consume, or be affected by the goods.
- Section 2318 addresses who may sue on a warranty; it does not alter what merchantability requires under 13 Pa.C.S. § 2314.
- Merchantability under § 2314 turns on fitness for the “ordinary purposes” of the goods, measured by intended, common use; foreseeable misuse by unintended users does not redefine the product’s ordinary purpose.
- Punitive damages in Pennsylvania require proof of outrageous conduct showing evil motive or reckless indifference; negligence or even gross negligence is insufficient.

## Conclusion

The court held that a disposable lighter that functions properly for adult use is merchantable despite foreseeable child misuse, and it rejected punitive damages absent proof of conduct meeting Pennsylvania’s stringent “outrageousness” requirement.


Phillips v. Cricket Lighters, 883 A.2d 439 (Pa. 2005)