§ 99B-5. Claims based on inadequate warning or instruction. - North Carolina Statutes

§99B‑5.  Claims based on inadequate warning or instruction.

(a)        No manufacturer orseller of a product shall be held liable in any product liability action for aclaim based upon inadequate warning or instruction unless the claimant provesthat the manufacturer or seller acted unreasonably in failing to provide suchwarning or instruction, that the failure to provide adequate warning orinstruction was a proximate cause of the harm for which damages are sought, andalso proves one of the following:

(1)        At the time theproduct left the control of the manufacturer or seller, the product, without anadequate warning or instruction, created an unreasonably dangerous conditionthat the manufacturer or seller knew, or in the exercise of ordinary careshould have known, posed a substantial risk of harm to a reasonably foreseeableclaimant.

(2)        After the productleft the control of the manufacturer or seller, the manufacturer or sellerbecame aware of or in the exercise of ordinary care should have known that theproduct posed a substantial risk of harm to a reasonably foreseeable user orconsumer and failed to take reasonable steps to give adequate warning orinstruction or to take other reasonable action under the circumstances.

(b)        Notwithstandingsubsection (a) of this section, no manufacturer or seller of a product shall beheld liable in any product liability action for failing to warn about an openand obvious risk or a risk that is a matter of common knowledge.

(c)        Notwithstandingsubsection (a) of this section, no manufacturer or seller of a prescriptiondrug shall be liable in a products liability action for failing to provide awarning or instruction directly to a consumer if an adequate warning orinstruction has been provided to the physician or other legally authorizedperson who prescribes or dispenses that prescription drug for the claimantunless the United States Food and Drug Administration requires such directconsumer warning or instruction to accompany the product. (1995,c. 522, s. 1.)