“Wisconsin Pharmacal Co., LLC v. Nebraska Cultures of California, Inc., stands out and may be remembered as the most significant decision by a Wisconsin court in 2016. In it, the state Supreme Court announced a pro-insurer application of the economic-loss doctrine to general-liability policies and erected a high hurdle to product-defect coverage,” write partner Jonathan L. Schwartz and associate Colin B. Willmott of Goldberg Segalla’s Global Insurance Services Practice Group.

In the first of a two-part series, Jonathan and Colin analyze the Pharmacal ruling and compare it to other product-defect court decisions nationwide. “In applying the integrated system analysis to the facts of Pharmacal and concluding the tablet was an integrated system, the Court reasoned that the probiotic could not be separated from the other ingredients, or vice versa,” say Jonathan and Colin in their analysis.

They continue on to discuss how Wisconsin’s use of the incorporation theory impacted nationwide litigation, including the numerous different conclusions found by courts across the country and unclear precedence currently happening in the courts. Jonathan and Colin conclude part one by simply stating, “Although Pharmacal arguably broke new ground in Wisconsin, the Supreme Court certainly does not find itself alone in the national landscape.”

Read the article here:

“One Bad Apple in Wisconsin Pharmacal Co. v. Nebraska Cultures of California,” Wisconsin Law Journal, April 10, 2017