Demara

*549 In this products liability case, plaintiffs Kawika Demara (Demara) and Sandra Demara (together, Plaintiffs) appeal from a summary judgment granted in favor of *107 defendants The Raymond Corporation (Raymond) and Raymond Handling Solutions, Inc. (RHSI) (together, Defendants). As relevant to this appeal, Plaintiffs asserted claims for strict liability and negligence based on injuries Demara suffered allegedly as a result of design defects in a forklift designed by Raymond and sold by RHSI.

Depending on the facts of a given case, a claim based on an alleged design defect can be proven by a plaintiff under the consumer expectation test, where the plaintiff proves that "the product failed to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used in an intended or reasonably foreseeable manner"; additionally, such a claim can be defeated by a defendant under the risk-benefit test (where, after the plaintiff presents a prima facie case that a product's design caused damages, the defendant proves that "on balance, the benefits of the challenged design outweigh the risk of danger inherent in such design"). ( Barker v. Lull Engineering Co. (1978) 20 Cal.3d 413 , 432, 143…