(a) Any action against a manufacturer or seller of a product for injury to person or property caused by its defective or unreasonably dangerous condition must be brought within the period fixed by §§ 28-3-104, 28-3-105, 28-3-202 and 47-2-725, but notwithstanding any exceptions to these provisions, it must be brought within six (6) years of the date of injury, in any event, the action must be brought within ten (10) years from the date on which the product was first purchased for use or consumption, or within one (1) year after the expiration of the anticipated life of the product, whichever is the shorter, except in the case of injury to minors whose action must be brought within a period of one (1) year after attaining the age of majority, whichever occurs sooner.
Manufacturer: means the designer, fabricator, producer, compounder, processor or assembler of any product or its component parts. See Tennessee Code 29-28-102
Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
Seller: includes a retailer, wholesaler, or distributor, and means any individual or entity engaged in the business of selling a product, whether such sale is for resale, or for use or consumption. See Tennessee Code 29-28-102
Unreasonably dangerous: means that a product is dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by the ordinary consumer who purchases it, with the ordinary knowledge common to the community as to its characteristics, or that the product because of its dangerous condition would not be put on the market by a reasonably prudent manufacturer or seller, assuming that the manufacturer or seller knew of its dangerous condition. See Tennessee Code 29-28-102
(b) The foregoing limitation of actions shall not apply to any action resulting from exposure to asbestos or to the human implantation of silicone gel breast implants.(c)(1) Any action against a manufacturer or seller for injury to a person caused by a silicone gel breast implant must be brought within a period not to exceed twenty-five (25) years from the date such product was implanted; provided, that such action must be brought within four (4) years from the date the plaintiff knew or should have known of the injury.(2) For purposes of this subsection (c) only, “seller” does not include a hospital or other medical facility where the procedure took place, nor does “seller” include the physician or other medical personnel involved in the procedure.(3) This subsection (c) only applies to causes of action not pending or decided on or before May 26, 1993. For the purposes of this subsection (c), a “pending case” is defined as a case actually filed by a silicone gel-filled breast implant recipient.
