Court:

Trib. Roma 3 November 2003, in Danno e Responsabilità, 2004, 529.

Topics:

Defect

Reasonably foreseeable use of product

Non-material damage

Articles:

Art. 6, al. 1, sub. b

Art. 9.

Facts:

The consumer suffered serious physical injuries as a consequence of an accident with his Aprilia motorbike. He claimed that the accident was due to a defect of the steering-wheel of the motorbike. The manufacturer denied that the motorbike was defective.

Legal Questions:

Was the product defective?

Decision:

The Tribunal held the manufacturer liable basing its decision on the expert's opinion which asserted that the product was presumably defective. Therefore the Tribunal ordered the manufacturer to pay 901,522 EUR to the consumer for his physical injuries and for non-material damages and 20,020 EUR as compensation for his legal costs.

Comments:

The recovery of non-material damage is no longer discussed following a recent decision of the Corte di Cassazione which held that non-material damage also has to be compensated for in strict liability cases because there is a legal presumption of fault, even if not investigated by the Court (C. Cass. 12 may 2003 n. 7282, in Resp. Civ. e prev., 2003, pag. 676).