"Even in California, you may not be able to sustain a class action lawsuit against a product that worked fine and didn't harm you."

The Northern District Court of California just threw out a particularly ridiculous lawsuit. Take it away Judge William Alsup:

As a concession to the shortness of life, California law does not allow a civil lawsuit to recover the purchase price for medicine consumed by the purchaser which performed as intended with no harm or fear of future harm merely because the consumer would not have purchased it had he or she known that the medicine came from a plant whose quality-control had been compromised….

If the pills had not been consumed, the consumer might possibly have a claim for a refund. But after consuming the pills and obtaining their beneficial effect with no downside, the consumer cannot get a refund on the theory that the pills came from a source of uncertain quality…. [T]he civil law should not be expanded to regulate every hypothetical ill in the absence of some real injury to the civil plaintiff.

Via Walter Olson's indispensable Overlawyered.com, where he observes: "Even in California, you may not be able to sustain a class action lawsuit against a product that worked fine and didn't harm you."