Rosa v. TASER Int'l, Inc., No. 09-17792 (9th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseIn 2004, Michael Rosa was apprehended by police officers after one of the officers deployed his advanced Taser M26 ECD (M26). After officers had Michael in restraints, Michael stopped breathing and later died of ventricular arrhythmia. The doctor who performed the autopsy listed "Taser application and arrest by police" as contributing conditions. Michael's death was subsequently linked to metabolic acidosis, a condition under which lactic acid accumulates more quickly than the body can dispose of it, causing the pH in the body to decrease, making sudden cardiac arrest more likely. Plaintiffs, Michael's parents and his daughter sued TASER International, Inc. (Defendant) as manufacturer of the M26, asserting that Michael died because it had provided an inadequate warning of the dangers of the product to the officers who used it. Plaintiffs pursued both strict liability and negligence theories under California law based upon this failure to warn. The district court awarded summary judgment to Defendant. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, concluding that the district court properly awarded summary judgment in favor of TASER because the risk of lactic acidosis was not knowable in 2003 when the M26 at issue was distributed.
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