Bryon Friedman and Rob Wilson secured a significant decision from the Supreme Court, New York County, granting partial summary judgment dismissing strict product liability and breach of warranty claims brought by a customer who claims she was burned while receiving a highlighting treatment at a beauty salon. The treatment involved wrapping locks of hair in foils that contained a chemical mixture. The plaintiff theorized that the colorist improperly mixed the highlighting chemicals, causing the foils to overheat. The court, while acknowledging strict liability may be available against a beauty salon for providing a defective product, agreed that strict product liability was not available for the service here because the plaintiff pointed to the colorist’s mixture rather than any particular product as causing the injury. The court dismissed the warranty claim because the colorist’s testimony that she never experienced or heard about any similar incident meant she had no duty to warn about the potential for a burn. The court also dismissed plaintiff’s claims against the salon’s parent and affiliate companies, finding that plaintiff failed to raise a factual issue as to their lack of control over the salon.
