Reference no: EM132150112

The Valvemaker Corporation is owned by Vinnie Valvemaker. It makes valves. His business has been making valves since the 1920s, having been founded by his grandfather Vernon Valvemaker. Vinnie's mother Veronica Valvemaker ran the business in the 1940s through the 1960s. All of the company's valves are made of steel. However, in order for them to function properly, they have to have gaskets where the valves join the rest of the pipes. The Valvemaker Corporation never made gaskets. However, they would include gaskets made by other companies in the boxes in which the valves were sold. In the 1940s - 1960s, those gaskets were made of asbestos. The Valvemaker Corporation did not have any warning that the gaskets contained asbestos or that asbestos was dangerous. In the 1950s, young Peter Pipefitter worked fitting pipes. He would use the valves (manufactured by Valvemaker Corp.) and the gaskets included with the packaging (made by some other company). When the gaskets wore out with normal use, he wold replace them. Peter Pipefitter recently died after suffering terribly with mesothelioma - a lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. His widow has come to your law form asking to sue the manufacturer of the asbestos gaskets and the Valvemaker Corporation.

Your employer has asked you to research and write an internal memorandum to your employer, explaining whether the Valvemaker Corporation has a duty to warn about the dangers of a product it did not produce. Your homework assignment is to draft an internal memorandum regarding that limited issue.