As Passed by the House

136th General Assembly

Regular Session Sub. H. B. No. 126

2025-2026

Representatives Mathews, A., Craig

Cosponsors: Representatives Stewart, Odioso, Williams

To amend sections 715.44, 2307.71, and 2307.72 and to enact section 2307.801 of the Revised Code to prohibit public nuisance actions concerning product liability.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

Section 1. That sections 715.44, 2307.71, and 2307.72 be amended and section 2307.801 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 715.44. A Subject to section 2307.801 of the Revised Code, a municipal corporation may:

(A) Abate any nuisance and prosecute in any court of competent jurisdiction, any person who creates, continues, contributes to, or suffers such nuisance to exist;

(B) Regulate and prevent the emission of dense smoke, prohibit the careless or negligent emission of dense smoke from locomotive engines, declare each of such acts a nuisance, and prescribe and enforce regulations for the prevention of such acts;

(D) Regulate and prohibit the use of steam whistles;

(E) Provide for the regulation of the installation and inspection of steam boilers and steam boiler plants.

Sec. 2307.71. (A) As used in sections 2307.71 to ~~2307.80~~ 2307.801 of the Revised Code:

(1) "Claimant" means either of the following:

(a) A person who asserts a product liability claim or on whose behalf such a claim is asserted;

(b) If a product liability claim is asserted on behalf of the surviving spouse, children, parents, or other next of kin of a decedent or on behalf of the estate of a decedent, whether as a claim in a wrongful death action under Chapter 2125. of the Revised Code or as a survivorship claim, whichever of the following is appropriate:

(i) The decedent, if the reference is to the person who allegedly sustained harm or economic loss for which, or in connection with which, compensatory damages or punitive or exemplary damages are sought to be recovered;

(ii) The personal representative of the decedent or the estate of the decedent, if the reference is to the person who is asserting or has asserted the product liability claim.

(2) "Economic loss" means direct, incidental, or consequential pecuniary loss, including, but not limited to, damage to the product in question, and nonphysical damage to property other than that product. Harm is not "economic loss."

(3) "Environment" means only navigable waters, surface water, ground water, drinking water supplies, land surface, subsurface strata, and air.

(4) "Ethical drug" means a prescription drug that is prescribed or dispensed by a physician or any other person who is legally authorized to prescribe or dispense a prescription drug.

(5) "Ethical medical device" means a medical device that is prescribed, dispensed, or implanted by a physician or any other person who is legally authorized to prescribe, dispense, or implant a medical device and that is regulated under the "Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act," 52 Stat. 1040, 21 U.S.C. 301-392, as amended.

(6) "Foreseeable risk" means a risk of harm that satisfies both of the following:

(a) It is associated with an intended or reasonably foreseeable use, modification, or alteration of a product in question.

(b) It is a risk that the manufacturer in question should recognize while exercising both of the following:

(i) The attention, perception, memory, knowledge, and intelligence that a reasonable manufacturer should possess;

(ii) Any superior attention, perception, memory, knowledge, or intelligence that the manufacturer in question possesses.

(7) "Harm" means death, physical injury to person, serious emotional distress, or physical damage to property other than the product in question. Economic loss is not "harm."

(8) "Hazardous or toxic substances" include, but are not limited to, hazardous waste as defined in section 3734.01 of the Revised Code, hazardous waste as specified in the rules of the director of environmental protection pursuant to division (A) of section 3734.12 of the Revised Code, hazardous substances as defined in section 3716.01 of the Revised Code, and hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants as defined in or by regulations adopted pursuant to the "Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980," 94 Stat. 2767, 42 U.S.C. 9601, as amended.

(9) "Manufacturer" means a person engaged in a business to design, formulate, produce, create, make, construct, assemble, or rebuild a product or a component of a product.

(10) "Person" has the same meaning as in division (C) of section 1.59 of the Revised Code and also includes governmental entities.

(11) "Physician" means a person who is licensed to practice medicine and surgery or osteopathic medicine and surgery by the state medical board.

(12)(a) "Product" means, subject to division (A)(12)(b) of this section, any object, substance, mixture, or raw material that constitutes tangible personal property and that satisfies all of the following:

(i) It is capable of delivery itself, or as an assembled whole in a mixed or combined state, or as a component or ingredient.

(ii) It is produced, manufactured, or supplied for introduction into trade or commerce.

(iii) It is intended for sale or lease to persons for commercial or personal use.

(b) "Product" does not include human tissue, blood, or organs.

(13) "Product liability claim" means a claim or cause of action that is asserted in a civil action pursuant to sections 2307.71 to ~~2307.80~~ 2307.801 of the Revised Code and that seeks to recover compensatory damages from a manufacturer or supplier for death, physical injury to person, emotional distress, or physical damage to property other than the product in question, that allegedly arose from any of the following:

(a) The design, formulation, production, construction, creation, assembly, rebuilding, testing, or marketing of that product;

(b) Any warning or instruction, or lack of warning or instruction, associated with that product;

"Product liability claim" also includes any public nuisance claim or cause of action at common law in which it is alleged that the design, manufacture, supply, marketing, distribution, promotion, advertising, labeling, or sale of a product unreasonably interferes with a right common to the general public.

(14) "Representation" means an express representation of a material fact concerning the character, quality, or safety of a product.

(15)(a) "Supplier" means, subject to division (A)(15)(b) of this section, either of the following:

(i) A person that, in the course of a business conducted for the purpose, sells, distributes, leases, prepares, blends, packages, labels, or otherwise participates in the placing of a product in the stream of commerce;

(ii) A person that, in the course of a business conducted for the purpose, installs, repairs, or maintains any aspect of a product that allegedly causes harm.

(b) "Supplier" does not include any of the following:

(i) A manufacturer;

(ii) A seller of real property;

(iii) A provider of professional services who, incidental to a professional transaction the essence of which is the furnishing of judgment, skill, or services, sells or uses a product;

(iv) Any person who acts only in a financial capacity with respect to the sale of a product, or who leases a product under a lease arrangement in which the selection, possession, maintenance, and operation of the product are controlled by a person other than the lessor.

(16) "Unavoidably unsafe" means that, in the state of technical, scientific, and medical knowledge at the time a product in question left the control of its manufacturer, an aspect of that product was incapable of being made safe.

(B) Sections 2307.71 to ~~2307.80~~ 2307.801 of the Revised Code are intended to abrogate all common law product liability claims or causes of action.

Sec. 2307.72. (A) Any recovery of compensatory damages based on a product liability claim is subject to sections 2307.71 to 2307.79 of the Revised Code.

(B) Any recovery of punitive or exemplary damages in connection with a product liability claim is subject to sections 2307.71 to 2307.80 of the Revised Code.

(C) Any recovery of compensatory damages for economic loss based on a claim that is asserted in a civil action, other than a product liability claim, is not subject to sections 2307.71 to 2307.79 of the Revised Code, but may occur under the common law of this state or other applicable sections of the Revised Code.

(D)(1) Sections 2307.71 to ~~2307.80~~ 2307.801 of the Revised Code do not supersede, modify, or otherwise affect any statute, regulation, or rule of this state or of the United States, or the common law of this state or of the United States, that relates to liability in compensatory damages or punitive or exemplary damages for injury, death, or loss to person or property, or to relief in the form of the abatement of a nuisance, civil penalties, cleanup costs, cost recovery, an injunction or temporary restraining order, or restitution, that arises, in whole or in part, from contamination or pollution of the environment or a threat of contamination or pollution of the environment, including contamination or pollution or a threat of contamination or pollution from hazardous or toxic substances.

(2) Consistent with the Rules of Civil Procedure, in the same civil action against the same defendant or different defendants, a claimant may assert both of the following:

(a) A product liability claim, including a claim for the recovery of punitive or exemplary damages in connection with a product liability claim;

(b) A claim for the recovery of compensatory damages or punitive or exemplary damages for injury, death, or loss to person or property, or for relief in the form of the abatement of a nuisance, civil penalties, cleanup costs, cost recovery, an injunction or temporary restraining order, or restitution, that arises, in whole or in part, from contamination or pollution of the environment or a threat of contamination or pollution of the environment, including contamination or pollution or a threat of contamination or pollution from hazardous or toxic substances.

Sec. 2307.801. (A) No person shall bring any public nuisance claim or cause of action at common law in which it is alleged that the design, manufacture, supply, marketing, distribution, promotion, advertising, labeling, or sale of a product unreasonably interferes with a right common to the general public.

(B) The general assembly, in enacting this section, hereby declares its intent to expressly codify the holding of the Ohio Supreme Court in In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation; Trumbull County, Ohio et al. v. Purdue Pharma, L.P., et al., Slip Opinion No. 2024-Ohio-5744, regarding the abrogation of public nuisance claims at common law under divisions (A)(13) and (B) of section 2307.71 of the Revised Code. Nothing in division (A) of this section, including the omission of any word or phrase from the listing and description of abrogated public nuisance claims, shall be construed to limit or minimize that holding.

Section 2. That existing sections 715.44, 2307.71, and 2307.72 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.