Giddings & Lewis, Inc. v. Industrial Risk Insurers

Opinion of the Court by

Justice ABRAMSON.

The “economic loss rule” prevents the commercial purchaser of a product from suing in tort to recover for economic losses arising from the malfunction of the product itself, recognizing that such damages must be recovered, if at all, pursuant to contract law. Twenty-five years ago, when the United States Supreme Court unanimously adopted the economic loss rule as a common-law aspect of admiralty law, Justice Blackmun observed that while product liability law grew out of a concern that “people need more protection from dangerous products” than might be…