The law that lets you hold a manufacturer responsible for a dangerous product — without proving carelessness — and the 10-year clock that can quietly end the claim before you ever knew you had one.
OCGA § 51-1-11 lets a person hurt by a defective new product hold the manufacturer liable — in “strict liability,” meaning you don’t have to prove the manufacturer was careless, only that the product was defective and caused your injury.
Most injury claims require proving someone was negligent — that they failed to act reasonably. Product liability is different and, for an injured person, often more powerful: under this statute, the question isn’t whether the manufacturer tried hard enough, it’s whether the product itself was defective when it left their hands and that defect caused the harm.
Two features make this statute distinctive. It applies “irrespective of privity” — you don’t need to have bought the product yourself; a bystander or borrower can recover. And it comes with a hard outer deadline, the statute of repose, that works very differently from the usual filing clock.
Georgia’s statutes are public law, so here is the operative language of the key provisions. (Summarized; consult the official Code for the complete text.)
(b)(1) The manufacturer of any personal property sold as new property shall be liable in tort, irrespective of privity, to any natural person who may use or be reasonably affected by the property and who is injured because the property, when sold, was not merchantable and reasonably suited to the use intended, and its condition when sold is the proximate cause of the injury.
(b)(2) No action shall be commenced under this subsection more than ten years from the date of the first sale for use or consumption of the personal property causing or bringing about the injury.
(c) The limitation in (b)(2) does not apply to certain conduct, including a failure to warn of a danger, and does not bar claims arising from conduct showing willful, reckless, or wanton disregard for life or property. (Confirm the exact exceptions against current law.)
A product can be “defective” in three distinct ways, and the type shapes the entire case — what experts you need, and what evidence proves it.
| Defect type | What it means |
|---|---|
| Design defect | The product is dangerous as designed — every unit carries the same flaw, even when built perfectly. Often proven by showing a safer, feasible alternative design. |
| Manufacturing defect | The design is sound, but something went wrong in production, making a particular unit dangerous — a cracked weld, a contaminated batch. |
| Warning defect | The product lacks adequate warnings or instructions about a non-obvious danger — sometimes called failure to warn. |
The distinction isn’t academic. A design-defect case turns on engineering and whether a safer design was achievable; a manufacturing-defect case turns on how this unit differed from the intended design; a warning case turns on what the maker knew and what it told users. Identifying the right theory early drives which experts and documents will win the case.
The strict-liability hammer in § 51-1-11 falls on the manufacturer — the entity that made the new product. That can include the maker of a defective component as well as the company that assembled the finished product.
Non-manufacturer sellers — the retailer or distributor — are generally not strictly liable just for selling a product (a separate statute, § 51-1-11.1, addresses non-manufacturer “product sellers”), though they can face other claims and may be treated as a manufacturer in certain situations. Because of this, one of the first and most important steps is mapping the entire chain — component makers, assemblers, importers, and sellers — to identify every responsible party before deadlines run.
A statute of repose is an absolute outer deadline: it can bar a product claim ten years after the product was first sold — even if your injury happened years later, or only days ago.
This is the trap that surprises people, so it’s worth being precise. The familiar statute of limitations (two years for injury, under § 9-3-33) runs from the date you’re hurt. The statute of repose runs from the date the product was first sold — and it can extinguish the claim regardless of when the injury occurs.
Imagine a machine first sold 11 years ago that injures a worker today. The two-year limitations clock just started — but the ten-year repose clock may have already expired, potentially barring a strict-liability design claim. Important exceptions exist (notably failure to warn, and willful/reckless/wanton conduct), and the period and its carve-outs must be confirmed against the current Code — but the lesson is the same: the age of the product can be as important as the date of the injury.
Not for strict liability. Under § 51-1-11 the focus is on whether the product was defective and caused your injury — not on whether the manufacturer was negligent. That’s what makes the statute powerful for injured people.
You may still have a claim. The statute applies “irrespective of privity” — a user, a borrower, or even a bystander reasonably affected by the product can recover.
Dangerous assumption. The two-year limitations clock is only half the picture — the ten-year repose clock runs from the product’s first sale and can bar a claim before the limitations period even matters. An older product means there may be far less time than you think.
This page explains Georgia law in general terms and is not legal advice; reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutory text is summarized for readability — consult the official Georgia Code for the complete, authoritative version. The statute of repose and its exceptions are technical and decisive, so speak with a licensed Georgia attorney about your specific situation quickly — especially if the product is several years old.
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