Is a city liable for failure to establish a prima facie case of products liability?

Finally, it cannot be held, as a matter of law, that the city failed to establish a prima facie case of products liability. Both plaintiff, and his coworker, testified that they did not start the hopper mechanism, thus raising a viable issue of fact as to whether the device self-activated. And, since this creates a fact question concerning whether the product performed as intended by the manufacturer, the trier of fact could infer the existence of a defect as of the time of delivery (see, e. g., Codling v. Paglia, 32 N.Y.2d 330, 337-338, 345 N.Y.S.2d 461, 298 N.E.2d 622, supra ). True, there is evidence in the record tending to negate the

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