Rivera v. Philip Morris, Inc.

OPINION

By the Court,

Saitta, J.:

The United States District Court, District of Nevada, has certified the question of whether Nevada law recognizes a heeding presumption in strict product liability failure-to-warn cases. A heeding presumption is a rebuttable presumption that allows a fact-finder to presume that the injured plaintiff would have heeded an adequate warning if one had been given. Thus, it shifts the burden of proving the element of causation from the plaintiff to the manufacturer. We exercise our discretion to answer this question and conclude that Nevada law does not recognize a…