Wilson Sporting Goods Co. v. Hickox

Edwin Hickox (plaintiff), a baseball umpire, was given a protective mask by a Wilson Sporting Goods (defendant) representative who said it was a new, safer design. During a game, a foul ball hit the mask and seriously injured Hickox because the throat guard concentrated the ball's force in one spot rather than dispersing it, transferring that force to his head. Wilson had not tested the mask for this, and safer masks were available. Hickox sued for defective design, the jury found for him, and Wilson moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

Whether, under the consumer-expectations test, the design of sports equipment is defective if it fails to perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used in an intended or reasonably foreseeable manner.