Like every other U.S. manufacturer, General Motors confronts a new legal threat called "strict liability" the fast-developing doctrine that a manufac turer may be held liable for consumer injuries without being proved guilty of negligence in the manufacturing proc ess (TIME, Aug. 6). Strict liability lurks behind hundreds of pending suits that claim that the rear axle of G.M.'s 1960-1963 Corvairs caused oversteering and sometimes fatal accidents. But last week G.M. won the first of those suits and in California, where the doctrine of strict liability is well established. In San Jose, G.M. successfully de fended itself...
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