Kealoha

We must decide whether, under Hawaii law, a manufacturer has a duty to warn of danger posed by a material that is later used in a medical implant device.

*897 I

Elysa Kealoha and the eight' other appellants (collectively “Kealoha”) appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (“DuPont”) in this products liability action arising under diversity jurisdiction. Kealoha sued DuPont as the manufacturer of a raw material (Teflon) 1 used by Vitek, Inc. to produce Proplast, 2 which Vitek in turn used to create jaw implants.

Between 1983 and 1987, oral surgeons used a medical device known as the Vitek Proplast Interpositional TMJ Implant (the “implant”) to correct problems in each appellant’s temporomandibular joint (“TMJ”). The implant recipients suffered debilitating tissue reactions when the implants fragmented.

The implants were made by Vitek, which also manufactured the Proplast used to produce the implants. Vitek combined polytet-rafluoroethylene (“PTFE”; also known as “Teflon”), purchased from DuPont, with other material, such as carbon fibers, to make Proplast. In addition, Vitek used fluorinated ethylene propylene (“FEP”)…