Sorry I should have included the time line but it was a 1951 Cessna and the seat failure was in the early 1990's, the locating holes in the seat tracks developed ramps either side of the holes and after many years and much wear allowed the pin to jump out causing the seat to slide rearwards on take off. The "Judge" ruled that this was a design fault, Cessna should foreseen this wear??
This is how US litigation worked and quite unfair on Cessna after all those years. Cessna did not want risk the chance of anymore biased litigation and walked away from light aircraft for 10 years. I do believe there is an AD for seat tracks and I checked my 170A seat tracks not long after this incident accident and yes they were worn too.
