MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.
E100413
MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. is a landmark 1916 New York Court of Appeals case that expanded manufacturers’ liability in negligence to consumers, even without privity of contract.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T841079 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. Context triple: [Benjamin N. Cardozo, notableWork, MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.]
-
A.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the key burden-shifting framework for proving employment discrimination under Title VII.
-
B.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
-
C.
Sherbert v. Verner
Sherbert v. Verner is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that strengthened protections for religious liberty by requiring strict scrutiny of government actions that substantially burden individuals’ religious practices.
-
D.
Toomer v. Witsell
Toomer v. Witsell is a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case that significantly interpreted the Privileges and Immunities Clause by striking down discriminatory state licensing fees imposed on out-of-state commercial fishermen.
-
E.
Mathews v. Eldridge
Mathews v. Eldridge is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established a three-factor balancing test for determining what procedural safeguards due process requires in administrative proceedings.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. Target entity description: MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. is a landmark 1916 New York Court of Appeals case that expanded manufacturers’ liability in negligence to consumers, even without privity of contract.
-
A.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green
McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established the key burden-shifting framework for proving employment discrimination under Title VII.
-
B.
Briggs v. Elliott
Briggs v. Elliott was a landmark federal court case from South Carolina challenging racial segregation in public schools, and it became one of the key cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.
-
C.
Sherbert v. Verner
Sherbert v. Verner is a landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case that strengthened protections for religious liberty by requiring strict scrutiny of government actions that substantially burden individuals’ religious practices.
-
D.
Toomer v. Witsell
Toomer v. Witsell is a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case that significantly interpreted the Privileges and Immunities Clause by striking down discriminatory state licensing fees imposed on out-of-state commercial fishermen.
-
E.
Mathews v. Eldridge
Mathews v. Eldridge is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established a three-factor balancing test for determining what procedural safeguards due process requires in administrative proceedings.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
New York Court of Appeals decision
ⓘ
court case ⓘ landmark case ⓘ product liability case ⓘ tort law case ⓘ |
| citation |
111 N.E. 1050
ⓘ
217 N.Y. 382 ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | New York Court of Appeals ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1916 ⓘ |
| defendant |
Buick Motor Company
ⓘ
linked to:
Buick
|
| factPattern |
Buick had purchased the wheel from an independent supplier and sold the completed car to a dealer, who then sold it to MacPherson.
ⓘ
Plaintiff was injured when a wheel of a Buick automobile collapsed while he was driving. ⓘ The defective wheel could have been discovered by reasonable inspection by the manufacturer. ⓘ |
| holding |
A manufacturer of a product that is reasonably certain to place life and limb in peril when negligently made owes a duty of care to persons beyond the immediate purchaser.
ⓘ
Privity of contract is not required for a consumer to sue a manufacturer in negligence for personal injuries caused by a defective product. ⓘ |
| impact |
eroded the privity barrier in American tort law
ⓘ
expanded manufacturers’ liability in negligence to ultimate consumers ⓘ influenced subsequent adoption of strict products liability doctrines ⓘ laid groundwork for modern product liability law in the United States ⓘ |
| involvedParty |
Buick Motor Company
ⓘ
linked to:
Buick
Donald C. MacPherson ⓘ |
| issue | Whether a manufacturer owes a duty of care in negligence to a consumer not in privity of contract with the manufacturer. ⓘ |
| judge |
Benjamin N. Cardozo
ⓘ
linked to:
Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo
Cuthbert W. Pound ⓘ Emory A. Chase ⓘ Frederick Collin ⓘ Willard Bartlett ⓘ William H. Cuddeback NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | New York ⓘ |
| legalArea |
consumer protection
ⓘ
negligence ⓘ product liability ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple |
abolition of privity requirement in negligence actions against manufacturers for dangerous products
ⓘ
duty of care extends to any person foreseeably endangered by the negligent manufacture of a product ⓘ foreseeability as a basis for duty in negligence ⓘ |
| opinionBy |
Benjamin N. Cardozo
ⓘ
linked to:
Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo
|
| plaintiff | Donald C. MacPherson ⓘ |
| precedentFor | duty of manufacturers to remote users of products ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
dangerous products
ⓘ
duty of care ⓘ foreseeable plaintiff ⓘ privity of contract ⓘ |
| result | judgment for the plaintiff ⓘ |
| stateLaw | New York law ⓘ |
| status | good law in New York as a foundational negligence precedent ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 20th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. Description of subject: MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. is a landmark 1916 New York Court of Appeals case that expanded manufacturers’ liability in negligence to consumers, even without privity of contract.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.