Liability for Transfusion-Acquired Disease

Abstract

To Editor.— In a recent COMMENTARY, entitled Individual and Institutional Liability for Transfusion-Acquired Diseases, 1 authors correctly include Minnesota as one of five states without a statute classifying provision of blood as a service. However, authors err in stating that the issue of blood bank liability has simply not arisen in published opinions of... Minnesota. In a 1965 decision, Balkowitsch v Minneapolis War Memorial Blood Bank , 2 Supreme Court of Minnesota considered and resolved this issue. In holding that relationship between blood bank and recipient was sui generis , Minnesota court aligned itself with vast majority of jurisdictions that have declined to impose strict liability for transfusion. The Balkowitsch plaintiff, who developed hepatitis following transfusion, claimed a breach of implied warranty under a contractual sales-act theory as well as strict liability in tort. The court rejected both of these theories. In