Boatland of Houston, Inc., Petitioner v. Valerie Bailey, Respondents

Summary

The Texas Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's judgment that the bass boat was not defectively designed, holding that evidence of the state of the art is admissible to assess the feasibility of a safer design in strict liability cases and that the appellate court erred in reversing the trial court. The Court also found the erroneous submission of misuse, warning, and assumption‑of‑risk issues to be harmless error. Separate opinions dissented on the admissibility of commercial‑unavailability evidence and concurred on the need to simplify defenses.