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Zittrain Torts Playlist Spring 2018

Arnaldo MEDINA and Luz Lopez, his wife, Plaintiffs, v. LOUISVILLE LADDER, INC., and Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., Defendants.

"The Monolingual Installation Instructions"

Do manufacturers owe a duty to provide bilingual installation instructions when they know that many of their customers speak only Spanish?

The plaintiff purchased a ladder that came with installation instructions written in English.  Because the plaintiff could only read Spanish, he installed the ladder incorrectly and later suffered an elbow injury when the ladder collapsed beneath him.  The plaintiff argued that the manufacturer owed a duty to provide Spanish as well as English installation instructions because a large number of its customers could only read Spanish.