Hospitals ‘Sellers’ Under Product Liability Law, Oregon High Court Affirms

EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon Supreme Court has affirmed in a Zofran birth defect case that hospitals are subject to strict liability as “sellers” under the state’s product liability statute.

In a May 2 opinion, the high court agreed with an intermediate court that the defendant hospital could be subject to liability under Oregon Revised Statute 30.920 as a “seller engaged in the business of selling” Zofran because it transferred the drug’s ownership to the child’s mother in exchange for valuable consideration.

The panel added that the hospital’s ongoing commercial activity consisted in some part of selling the drug, even …