For a tie rod to break on a 5 year old car with 54k miles, I’d say that yes, it was defective. That’s assuming that there wasn’t an external cause, such as hitting an object in the road that started the process to breaking it. It would also be helpful to know exactly what broke. Did the ball break off? did the ball drop out of the socket? Did the ball end drop out of the steering knuckle (nut left off or not cotter pinned)?