October 17th, 2013
The United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia respectfully requests that this Court exercise jurisdiction pursuant to West Virginia Code ยงยง 51-1A-1 to 51-1A-13, and answer the questions of law set forth below.
CERTIFIED QUESTIONS
1. Whether the parental immunity doctrine precludes defendants from asserting well-established product liability defenses of product misuse and superseding intervening causation, in order to demonstrate lack of defect and foreseeability in a child's product liability action?
2. Whether the parental immunity doctrine bars defendants from asserting their independent rights of contribution and indemnity and/or from allocating fault against parents who were allegedly negligent?
3. Whether allegedly negligent parents should be included as a nonparty for the allocation of fault, even though parental immunity would still bar recovery of the damages allocated to the parent?
4. Whether parental immunity should have continued viability in this jurisdiction?
