[authors: Gregory M. Cesarano, Douglas J. Chumbley and David L. Luck]
In product liability suits, plaintiffs often premise liability on an alleged “failure to warn.” This type of claim can travel under negligence or strict-liability theories, or both. While there are some distinctions between negligence and strict-liability warnings claims, they each boil down to (1) whether the warnings accompanying the item are inadequate under an objective standard, and, if so, (2) whether the inadequacy of the warnings caused the plaintiff’s injury. Under Florida law, manufacturers and distributors of consumer products have a duty to provide accurate, clear, and unambiguous product warnings in order to avoid unreasonable risks of harm to potential users. However, there are no decisions from Florida state courts imposing a duty to warn in Spanish in addition to English. Indeed, the only decisions addressing this issue under Florida law come from federal courts applying Florida law.
Application under Florida Law
There are three reported decisions from the U.S. District Courts for the Middle and Southern Districts of Florida addressing the issue of whether a manufacturer or distributor might have a duty to warn in Spanish: (1) Farias v. Mr. Heater, Inc., 757 F. Supp. 2d 1284 (S.D. Fla. 2010), aff’d, No. 11–10405, --- F.3d ----, 2012 WL 2354369 (11th Cir. June 21, 2012); (2) Medina v. Louisville Ladder, Inc., 496 F. Supp. 2d 1324 (M.D. Fla. 2007); and (3) Stanley Industries, Inc. v. W.M. Barr & Co., Inc., 784 F. Supp. 1570 (S.D. Fla. 1992). Both Farias and Medina held that Florida does not recognize a general common law duty to warn in Spanish (and, presumably, any language other than English). These decisions further explained that it would be improper for a federal district court to expand Florida common law beyond its existing parameters as determined by Florida’s state courts. Indeed, as noted above, there are no Florida state court decisions imposing such a duty. It is also worth noting that Florida’s Constitution identifies English as the state’s official language. See Art. II, § 9(a), FLA. CONST.
However, the earlier decision from the Southern District of Florida, Stanley, appeared to assume that when a manufacturer and distributor jointly advertise a consumer product in Spanish in an area with a significant population that speaks only Spanish (e.g., portions of Miami-Dade County, Florida), then the manufacturer and distributor undertake a duty to warn in Spanish. Although Stanley addressed the issue as one of adequacy of the non-Spanish warnings, duty is a threshold issue of law for the court. Therefore, by denying summary judgment and permitting the fact finder an opportunity to hold a manufacturer and distributor liable for failing to provide Spanish language warnings, Stanley assumed...
