Johnson v. The Cricket Co.








Filed 11/15/10 Johnson v. The Cricket Co. CA1/2






NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.


IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

TRACEY JOHNSON , Plaintiff and Appellant, v. THE CRICKET COMPANY, LLC, Defendant and Respondent.

A126963 (Humboldt County Super. Ct. No. DR080375)

Plaintiff Tracey Johnson, the owner of a hair salon, was cutting a customer's hair using a pair of scissors manufactured by defendant The Cricket Company (Cricket) when she suffered injuries allegedly caused by the defective design and manufacture of the scissors, and the deceptive manner in which it was sold. She filed a complaint for damages in which she alleged seven causes of action, three for differing theories of product liability, and four for various alleged misrepresentations. The entire complaint for damages fell before Cricket's summary judgment motion. We conclude that summary adjudication was properly granted as to those causes of action alleged by Johnson concerning alleged misrepresentations made by Cricket preceding Johnson's purchase of the scissors, but was improperly granted as to her three products liability causes of action. We thus affirm in part and reverse in part.
BACKGROUND
Johnson is a licensed cosmetologist who has been cutting and styling hair since 1988. Starting in 1999, she sold cosmetological products for West Coast Beauty Systems as well as continuing to work in the Eureka hair salon she owned.[1] Johnson was apparently a cracker-jack sales representative, earning more than $66,000 in 2005.[2] One of the new items she began offering in early 2006 for sale was the Q-575 scissors designed by Cricket, which oversees their manufacture, and is responsible for their sale.[3] The tips of the Q-575 scissors come to a much sharper point than in Cricket's C2-525 scissors that the Q-575 replaced.
On May 9, 2006, Johnson was cutting a customer's hair in the Eureka salon using Q-575 scissors, only the second time Johnson had used the scissors. Johnson had bought the scissors--which are also called â€