A federal court last week granted defendant’s summary judgment motion in a putative class action alleging Nintendo of America Inc. sold defective wrist straps with its Wii controllers.  Elvig, et al. v. Nintendo of America Inc., No. 08-cv-02616 (D. Colo.)

Readers are familiar with the Wii game system. The Wii employs a motion sensing controller that allows the player to manipulate the on-screen action by performing imitative physical actions, such as swinging the controller like a tennis racquet to control the onscreen action in a tennis game. (Readers may recall the classic product liability issues over various lawn dart games; with Wii you can play them in your family room.) To ensure that controllers do not leave a player’s hand during vigorous physical activity, Nintendo includes a “safety strap” to be worn around the player’s wrist. The strap, in turn, connects to the controller by means of a “string sling.”

Plaintiff sued, alleging the strap was defective, broke, and caused damage to her television. She alleged violation of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (“CCPA”), of the Colorado Product Liability Act, and a breach of implied warranty or merchantability and of fitness for a particular purpose. To establish a claim under the CCPA, a plaintiff must show: (i) that the defendant engaged in one of several categories of unfair or deceptive trade practices; (ii) the practice occurred in the course of the defendants business or trade; (iii) the practice significantly impacts the public as actual or potential consumers of the defendant’s goods or services; (iv) the plaintiff suffered an injury; and (v) the challenged practice caused the injury. Nintendo argued that Ms. Elvig could not establish the first and last elements – i.e. a deceptive practice and causation of injury.  The court found that plaintiff’s vague reference to “false advertising” that “touts the Wii’s athletic usages while making no mention of the straps’ propensity to break” was inadequate in detail and content to make out such a claim.  Plaintiff lacked specifics about what the advertising actually said.

On the product liability claim, Nintendo contended that it gave players adequate warnings of the need to retain possession of the controller and advised them of the possibility that release of the controller during vigorous motion could result in breakage of the strap and damage to persons or property. The court noted the evidence that Nintendo did advise players, via a safety card included with the Wii system, that “If you use excessive motion and let go of the Wii Remote, the wrist strap may break and you could lose control of the Wii Remote. This could injure people nearby or cause damage to other objects.” This, coupled with repeated instructions on the safety card that advise players “DO NOT LET GO OF THE REMOTE DURING GAME PLAY,” ensure that, if the player follows Nintendo’s instructions and heeds its warnings, the Wii system does not pose an unreasonable danger. Ms. Elvig did not dispute that such instructions were included with the Wii she received. Nintendo thus having given an adequate warning to users, it may “reasonably assume that it will be read and heeded,” and thus, has ensured that the product was not “unreasonably dangerous” under the Second Restatement, § 402A, comment j. An interesting take on the relationship of warning and design issues.

On the implied warranty of merchantability, the court cited the lack of evidence that would indicate what the intended purpose of the strap was. One might plausibly assume, as plaintiff did, that the strap was intended to prevent a controller, inadvertently released by the player during vigorous activity, from hurling towards the player’s television (or towards another player) and causing damage.  But equally, one might assume that the strap was simply intended to keep an
inadvertently released controller in the vicinity of the player so that it could be easily retrieved and was was never intended to withstand the forces of high-speed controller release. To withstand summary judgment, plaintiff needed more than one of alternate plausible assumptions; she needed evidence of the ordinary purpose of the strap and proof that it failed the ordinary purpose.

Finally, the court noted that a “particular purpose” differs from the ordinary purpose for which the goods are to be used; in other words, a buyer obtaining goods for a “particular purpose” is one who, for reasons peculiar to the buyer, is obtaining the goods for use other than that which is customarily made of the goods.  Here, there was no evidence that Ms. Elvig obtained the Wii for a “particular purpose” other than that for which it would customarily be used.  The damages occurred when the plaintiff was allegedly playing the Wii bowling game  (no bowling shoes required)– in the manner and fashion represented by Nintendo in its marketing and promotion materials. In short, using the Wii for its “ordinary purpose” at the time of the accident, not for some “particular” – e.g. unusual – purpose.

Hence, summary judgment for defendant on all claims.