Wilma Locked Herself in the Trunk of a 1973 Sedan

question 21

Essay

Wilma locked herself in the trunk of a 1973 sedan in an attempt to learn a magic trick. After some time, she decided to get out of the trunk, but was unable to do so. She was released nine days later. She subsequently sued the manufacturer of the sedan for the psychological and physical injuries she sustained because the trunk did not have an internal release or opening mechanism that would have allowed her to escape. She alleged that the manufacturer was negligent in its design of the car because it lacked such a mechanism, and negligent because it failed to warn users that the trunk did not have such a mechanism. In this scenario, was the manufacturer of the sedan negligent for failing to warn, or failing to include a release mechanism in its design of the car?

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Definitions:

Intractable Epilepsy

A form of epilepsy that is resistant to treatment, where patients do not achieve seizure control through medication.

Primary Motor Area

A part of the frontal lobe in the brain responsible for the execution of voluntary movements by sending signals to skeletal muscles.

Neuron

A specialized cell transmitting nerve impulses; the basic building block of the nervous system.

Lateralized

Refers to the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be more dominant in one hemisphere of the brain than the other.