Have you reviewed your company’s liability insurance lately? I think you better in light of a recent Canadian court decision concerning your responsibility to the consumer. In case you’re not aware, I’ll give you a quick synopsis of this case and its landmark decision as I understand it.

A few years back, a family came into a Hamilton pool retailer’s store to purchase parts for an old swimming pool slide that they had purchased in a garage sale. The store sold the parts and the consumer took them home and installed them on the slide.

A short time later, the family’s daughter, about age 13, went down the slide, for a second time, on her knees, fell forward and struck her chin on the shallow bottom, breaking her neck and becoming a quadriplegic.

In the plaintiff’s case, they contend that, because the retail store sold the parts to the consumer, that they had the due diligence to ask if the slide was installed in a safe manner and was being used in safe manner. This means that the pool retailer should have asked...