As Introduced
136th General Assembly
Regular Session H. B. No. 126
2025-2026
Representatives Mathews, A., Craig
A B I L L
To amend sections 715.44 and 2307.71 and to enact
section 2307.801 of the Revised Code to prohibit
certain public nuisance actions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 715.44 and 2307.71 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;
(C) Prevent injury and annoyance from any nuisance;
(D) Regulate and prohibit the use of steam whistles;
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(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
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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
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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.
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(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;
(c) Any failure of that product to conform to any relevant
representation or warranty.
"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;
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(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. 2307.801. (A) No person shall bring a 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.
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(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
certain public nuisance claims at common law under divisions (A)
(13) and (B) of section 2307.70 of the Revised Code.
Section 2. That existing sections 715.44 and 2307.71 of
the Revised Code are hereby repealed.
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