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As Passed by the House
136th
General Assembly
Regular
Session
Sub. H. B. No. 126
2025-2026
Representatives Mathews, A., Craig
Cosponsors: Representatives
Stewart, Odioso, Williams
To
amend sections 715.44
,
2307.71
,
and 2307.72
and to enact section 2307.801 of the Revised Code
to
prohibit public nuisance actions concerning product liability.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section
1.
That
sections 715.44
,
2307.71
,
and 2307.72
be amended and section 2307.801 of the Revised Code be enacted to
read as follows:
Sec.
715.44.
A
Subject
to section 2307.801 of the Revised Code, a
municipal
corporation may:
(A)
Abate any nuisance and prosecute in any court of competent
jurisdiction, any person who creates, continues, contributes to, or
suffers such nuisance to exist;
(B)
Regulate and prevent the emission of dense smoke, prohibit the
careless or negligent emission of dense smoke from locomotive
engines, declare each of such acts a nuisance, and prescribe and
enforce regulations for the prevention of such acts;
(C)
Prevent injury and annoyance from any nuisance;
(D)
Regulate and prohibit the use of steam whistles;
(E)
Provide for the regulation of the installation and inspection of
steam boilers and steam boiler plants.
Sec.
2307.71.
(A)
As used in sections 2307.71 to
2307.80
2307.801
of
the Revised Code:
(1)
"Claimant" means either of the following:
(a)
A person who asserts a product liability claim or on whose behalf
such a claim is asserted;
(b)
If a product liability claim is asserted on behalf of the surviving
spouse, children, parents, or other next of kin of a decedent or on
behalf of the estate of a decedent, whether as a claim in a wrongful
death action under Chapter 2125. of the Revised Code or as a
survivorship claim, whichever of the following is appropriate:
(i)
The decedent, if the reference is to the person who allegedly
sustained harm or economic loss for which, or in connection with
which, compensatory damages or punitive or exemplary damages are
sought to be recovered;
(ii)
The personal representative of the decedent or the estate of the
decedent, if the reference is to the person who is asserting or has
asserted the product liability claim.
(2)
"Economic loss" means direct, incidental, or consequential
pecuniary loss, including, but not limited to, damage to the product
in question, and nonphysical damage to property other than that
product. Harm is not "economic loss."
(3)
"Environment" means only navigable waters, surface water,
ground water, drinking water supplies, land surface, subsurface
strata, and air.
(4)
"Ethical drug" means a prescription drug that is prescribed
or dispensed by a physician or any other person who is legally
authorized to prescribe or dispense a prescription drug.
(5)
"Ethical medical device" means a medical device that is
prescribed, dispensed, or implanted by a physician or any other
person who is legally authorized to prescribe, dispense, or implant a
medical device and that is regulated under the "Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act," 52 Stat. 1040, 21 U.S.C. 301-392, as
amended.
(6)
"Foreseeable risk" means a risk of harm that satisfies both
of the following:
(a)
It is associated with an intended or reasonably foreseeable use,
modification, or alteration of a product in question.
(b)
It is a risk that the manufacturer in question should recognize while
exercising both of the following:
(i)
The attention, perception, memory, knowledge, and intelligence that a
reasonable manufacturer should possess;
(ii)
Any superior attention, perception, memory, knowledge, or
intelligence that the manufacturer in question possesses.
(7)
"Harm" means death, physical injury to person, serious
emotional distress, or physical damage to property other than the
product in question. Economic loss is not "harm."
(8)
"Hazardous or toxic substances" include, but are not
limited to, hazardous waste as defined in section 3734.01 of the
Revised Code, hazardous waste as specified in the rules of the
director of environmental protection pursuant to division (A) of
section 3734.12 of the Revised Code, hazardous substances as defined
in section 3716.01 of the Revised Code, and hazardous substances,
pollutants, and contaminants as defined in or by regulations adopted
pursuant to the "Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980," 94 Stat. 2767, 42
U.S.C. 9601, as amended.
(9)
"Manufacturer" means a person engaged in a business to
design, formulate, produce, create, make, construct, assemble, or
rebuild a product or a component of a product.
(10)
"Person" has the same meaning as in division (C) of section
1.59 of the Revised Code and also includes governmental entities.
(11)
"Physician" means a person who is licensed to practice
medicine and surgery or osteopathic medicine and surgery by the state
medical board.
(12)(a)
"Product" means, subject to division (A)(12)(b) of this
section, any object, substance, mixture, or raw material that
constitutes tangible personal property and that satisfies all of the
following:
(i)
It is capable of delivery itself, or as an assembled whole in a mixed
or combined state, or as a component or ingredient.
(ii)
It is produced, manufactured, or supplied for introduction into trade
or commerce.
(iii)
It is intended for sale or lease to persons for commercial or
personal use.
(b)
"Product" does not include human tissue, blood, or organs.
(13)
"Product liability claim" means a claim or cause of action
that is asserted in a civil action pursuant to sections 2307.71 to
2307.80
2307.801
of
the Revised Code and that seeks to recover compensatory damages from
a manufacturer or supplier for death, physical injury to person,
emotional distress, or physical damage to property other than the
product in question, that allegedly arose from any of the following:
(a)
The design, formulation, production, construction, creation,
assembly, rebuilding, testing, or marketing of that product;
(b)
Any warning or instruction, or lack of warning or instruction,
associated with that product;
(c)
Any failure of that product to conform to any relevant representation
or warranty.
"Product
liability claim" also includes any public nuisance claim or
cause of action at common law in which it is alleged that the design,
manufacture, supply, marketing, distribution, promotion, advertising,
labeling, or sale of a product unreasonably interferes with a right
common to the general public.
(14)
"Representation" means an express representation of a
material fact concerning the character, quality, or safety of a
product.
(15)(a)
"Supplier" means, subject to division (A)(15)(b) of this
section, either of the following:
(i)
A person that, in the course of a business conducted for the purpose,
sells, distributes, leases, prepares, blends, packages, labels, or
otherwise participates in the placing of a product in the stream of
commerce;
(ii)
A person that, in the course of a business conducted for the purpose,
installs, repairs, or maintains any aspect of a product that
allegedly causes harm.
(b)
"Supplier" does not include any of the following:
(i)
A manufacturer;
(ii)
A seller of real property;
(iii)
A provider of professional services who, incidental to a professional
transaction the essence of which is the furnishing of judgment,
skill, or services, sells or uses a product;
(iv)
Any person who acts only in a financial capacity with respect to the
sale of a product, or who leases a product under a lease arrangement
in which the selection, possession, maintenance, and operation of the
product are controlled by a person other than the lessor.
(16)
"Unavoidably unsafe" means that, in the state of technical,
scientific, and medical knowledge at the time a product in question
left the control of its manufacturer, an aspect of that product was
incapable of being made safe.
(B)
Sections 2307.71 to
2307.80
2307.801
of
the Revised Code are intended to abrogate all common law product
liability claims or causes of action.
Sec.
2307.72.
(A)
Any recovery of compensatory damages based on a product liability
claim is subject to sections 2307.71 to 2307.79 of the Revised Code.
(B)
Any recovery of punitive or exemplary damages in connection with a
product liability claim is subject to sections 2307.71 to 2307.80 of
the Revised Code.
(C)
Any recovery of compensatory damages for economic loss based on a
claim that is asserted in a civil action, other than a product
liability claim, is not subject to sections 2307.71 to 2307.79 of the
Revised Code, but may occur under the common law of this state or
other applicable sections of the Revised Code.
(D)(1)
Sections 2307.71 to
2307.80
2307.801
of
the Revised Code do not supersede, modify, or otherwise affect any
statute, regulation, or rule of this state or of the United States,
or the common law of this state or of the United States, that relates
to liability in compensatory damages or punitive or exemplary damages
for injury, death, or loss to person or property, or to relief in the
form of the abatement of a nuisance, civil penalties, cleanup costs,
cost recovery, an injunction or temporary restraining order, or
restitution, that arises, in whole or in part, from contamination or
pollution of the environment or a threat of contamination or
pollution of the environment, including contamination or pollution or
a threat of contamination or pollution from hazardous or toxic
substances.
(2)
Consistent with the Rules of Civil Procedure, in the same civil
action against the same defendant or different defendants, a claimant
may assert both of the following:
(a)
A product liability claim, including a claim for the recovery of
punitive or exemplary damages in connection with a product liability
claim;
(b)
A claim for the recovery of compensatory damages or punitive or
exemplary damages for injury, death, or loss to person or property,
or for relief in the form of the abatement of a nuisance, civil
penalties, cleanup costs, cost recovery, an injunction or temporary
restraining order, or restitution, that arises, in whole or in part,
from contamination or pollution of the environment or a threat of
contamination or pollution of the environment, including
contamination or pollution or a threat of contamination or pollution
from hazardous or toxic substances.
Sec.
2307.801.
(A)
No person shall bring any public nuisance claim or cause of action at
common law in which it is alleged that the design, manufacture,
supply, marketing, distribution, promotion, advertising, labeling, or
sale of a product unreasonably interferes with a right common to the
general public.
(B)
The general assembly, in enacting this section, hereby declares its
intent to expressly codify the holding of the Ohio Supreme Court in
In
re National Prescription Opiate Litigation; Trumbull County, Ohio et
al. v. Purdue Pharma, L.P., et al.
,
Slip Opinion No. 2024-Ohio-5744, regarding the abrogation of public
nuisance claims at common law under divisions (A)(13) and (B) of
section 2307.71 of the Revised Code. Nothing in division (A) of this
section, including the omission of any word or phrase from the
listing and description of abrogated public nuisance claims, shall be
construed to limit or minimize that holding.
Section
2.
That
existing sections 715.44
,
2307.71
,
and 2307.72
of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.