Injured by Defective Equipment: Who Can Be Held Liable in California?
August 27, 2026 | Article by Chain | Cohn | Clark staff Social Share
When a defective equipment injury happens, more than one party can be held responsible. Under California law, the companies that put the product into use – including the manufacturer, a component maker, the distributor, and the retailer – can each be held strictly liable when a defective machine or tool causes an injury.
Strict liability means the injured person does not need to prove that any of them were negligent, only that the product was defective and that the defect caused the injury. When the injury happened at work, a claim against the equipment maker can also exist alongside a workers’ compensation claim. The sections below explain the kinds of defects involved, who can be responsible, and what to preserve after an injury.
The Three Kinds of Product Defects
California product liability law recognizes three kinds of defects.
A manufacturing defect is an unintended flaw in a particular unit, one that departs from the product’s intended design even though the design itself was sound. A single saw that leaves the factory with a cracked blade housing is an example.
A design defect is a flaw in the design itself, which makes every unit of that product unsafe. A machine built without a standard guard that comparable machines include would fall under this type of defect.
A failure to warn is the absence of adequate warnings or instructions about a risk the maker knew or reasonably should have known about, where a proper warning would have let the user avoid the harm.
Strict liability applies when the equipment was being used in an intended or reasonably foreseeable way. What the injured person does not have to prove is fault: not that the company was careless, only that the product was defective and that the defect was a substantial factor in causing their injury.
Who Can Be Held Responsible
Responsibility for a defective product is not limited to the company that built it. California extends strict liability across the entire chain of distribution, which means the manufacturer, the maker of a defective component, the wholesaler, the distributor, and the retailer that sold the equipment can all potentially be held responsible. Each company that profited from placing the product into commerce shares responsibility for its safety.
The chain matters most when the injury happened on the job. Workers’ compensation is generally the only claim available against an employer, and it does not pay for pain and suffering or the full value of lost earnings. However, a machine can be defective due to a party outside the employment relationship, so an injured worker may be able to bring a third-party product liability claim against a third party alongside their workers’ compensation claim.
What Evidence to Preserve After an Injury
The equipment itself is usually the single most important piece of evidence. The machine or tool should not be repaired, altered, discarded, or returned to the manufacturer.
Records fill in the rest of the picture. Maintenance and inspection logs, the equipment’s manual and any warnings that came with it, purchase or lease records, and photographs of the machine and the scene all help establish the defect and how the injury happened. Medical records tie the injury to the incident and document its severity.
Frequently Asked Questions About Defective Equipment Injuries
Often, yes. Workers’ compensation covers medical care and disability benefits from your employer regardless of fault, but it does not pay for pain and suffering. When defective equipment caused your injury, you may also have a third-party product liability claim against the manufacturer or others in the chain of distribution, which can recover the damages workers’ compensation does not.
No. California uses strict liability for defective products, so you do not have to prove that the manufacturer or seller was negligent. You need to show that the product was defective, that the defect existed when it left the company’s control, and that the defect was a substantial factor in causing your injury while you were using the product in a reasonably foreseeable way.
You may still have a claim. Because strict liability applies to the whole chain of distribution, a distributor or retailer that handled the equipment can be responsible even when the original manufacturer no longer exists. Identifying every potentially responsible party is part of what an attorney does in a case like this.
Preserve it. Do not repair, clean, alter, or throw away the machine or tool, and do not send it back to the manufacturer, because it is typically the central evidence in a defective equipment claim.
Talk to a Kern County Defective Equipment Attorney
If a defective machine or tool caused a serious injury, the attorneys at Chain | Cohn | Clark can identify who may be responsible and preserve the evidence a claim depends on. Contact Chain | Cohn | Clark today for a free consultation about a defective equipment injury in Kern County.
