Ada Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Asbury

1952 OK 27, 242 P.2d 417, 206 Okla. 269, 1952 Okla. LEXIS 543
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 22, 1952
Docket34152
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 1952 OK 27 (Ada Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Asbury) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ada Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Asbury, 1952 OK 27, 242 P.2d 417, 206 Okla. 269, 1952 Okla. LEXIS 543 (Okla. 1952).

Opinion

WELCH, J.

Eva Asbury commenced this action against Frank Griffin and Ada Coca-Cola Bottling Company, a corporation, for damages for personal injuries.

By petition the plaintiff alleged that she bought a bottle of Coca-Cola from the defendant Frank Griffin, a retail merchant engaged in the business of selling groceries, bottled beverages, etc.; that upon such purchase she immediately -uncapped the bottle by use of an instrument furnished by said defendant and thereupon drank from the bottle; that unknown to her the bottle contained several pieces of glass which cut and irritated her throat and passed into her stomach; that as a result of swallowing the glass she suffered a continuous and disabling illness and permanent injuries to her body; that defendant Ada Coca-Cola Bottling Company had bottled the Coca-Cola and sold it to the defendant Griffin; that defendants in implied warranty represented the beverage she had purchased to' be free from harmful substance and fit and safe for human consumption; that her injuries were the result of breach of said warranty on the part of both defendants; that she was damaged to the extent of $26,285.95.

Answer was by general denial. First trial was had, resulting in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff and against both defendants. That judgment was reversed for the reasons noted in Griffin v. Asbury, 196 Okla. 484, 165 P. 2d 822. A new trial has resulted in verdict and judgment for the plaintiff in the amount of $13,142.97, and the defendants bring this appeal.

In presenting this appeal no question is raised by the retailer separately. Nothing is presented on the question whether his position would be or might be different from the position of the manufacturer in this case, and we therefore do not consider that question.

Defendants contend “that the verdict and judgment are not sustained by sufficient evidence and are contrary to' law.”

There is no question raised as to the sufficiency of the evidence as showing that plaintiff purchased the bottle of Coca-Cola under the circumstances alleged in her petition, and that she drank therefrom and swallowed glass and thereafter became afflicted with a continuous disabling illness as alleged in her petition.

The defendants assert there was no competent testimony of witnesses *271 skilled in medical science to show a causal connection between plaintiff’s alleged disabling illness and injury and the act of swallowing the glass.

Evidence was introduced tending to show that plaintiff was of the health, strength and vigor of a normal person of her years at the time she swallowed the glass.

A physician called by the plaintiff gave testimony to the effect that he attended plaintiff over a period of a year’s time, commencing with a professional call on her four days after the incident of the glass swallowing; that throughout the time of his observation and treatment of the plaintiff she was nervous and had a soreness of the abdomen, and had vomiting spells and was physically unable to perform ordinary housework; that he prescribed sedatives and an estrogenic substance in attempts to relieve her nervousness; that from his examination and observation of the plaintiff he formed the opinion that plaintiff’s condition was the result of a continuing irritation of the gastro-intestinal tract by some foreign object lodged therein. That from the history given by the plaintiff he formed an opinion that her condition was the result of the swallowing of the glass from the Coca-Cola bottle and its lodgment in the gastro-intestinal tract; that at of the date of his last attendance upon the plaintiff, he was of the opinion that her ultimate recovery was uncertain.

Several years elapsed between the date of the last attendance upon plaintiff by the physician referred to above, and the date of trial of this case. The plaintiff testified that in this interim she had at various times taken compounds furnished by an unlicensed Indian herb doctor; that she seemed to gain strength for a few days at such times, but. she was unable at any time during this period to do more than take short walks.

A physician witness testified that he had examined the plaintiff at a time approximately one and one-half years before this trial of the case and was given a history by the plaintiff as to her swallowing of glass as of the date she has alleged, and that he had again examined the plaintiff a few days before this latest trial proceeding. The witness testified concerning his findings that the plaintiff is for all practical purposes 100 per cent disabled, and that such condition is permanent. On the hypothesis that the plaintiff was in good health and strength when she swallowed particles of glass, and that she became immediately ill, sympto-mized by vomiting and a soreness of abdomen and loss of weight and strength, and that such illness and accompanying symptoms had persisted, periodic and continuous, for a period of years to the time of trial, the witness expressed an opinion that her condition, as he had found on physical examination, was the result of swallowing the glass.

The defendants contend the hypothetical question which elicited the response of the witness as to cause of plaintiff’s disability was incompetent •and defective in that the question did not set forth the medication given the plaintiff by her physician in the first year of her illness, or mention the concoctions taken by the plaintiff and furnished her by the Indian herb doctor in the five year period before trial. Defendants assert such treatment and the nature of the medicine administered were essential and material to the formation of an accurate opinion on the part of the expert witness.

The expert witness in cross-examination in effect stated that the cause of plaintiff’s condition is mechanical and that medical treatment received by the plaintiff could have little bearing on the cause of the.condition.

The defendants direct attention to the case of Gulf Oil Corp. v. Simmons, 197 Okla. 677, 174 P. 2d 359, and the following expression from the syllabus thereof.

“Where certain facts are undisputed and are material to the formation of *272 an accurate opinion on the part of the witness, a hypothetical question should include such facts and their omission will justify the trial court in rejecting the answer.”

In the Simmons case reference is also made to Shuffield v. Taylor, 125 Tex. 601, 83 S. W. 2d 955, and an expression of that court, as follows:

“A hypothetical question should be,' so framed as to recite all the facts in evidence relevant to the formation of an opinion, and then, assuming the facts to be true, the witness should be asked, if able to form an opinion therefrom to state his opinion. A question is not necessarily improper because it includes only a part of the facts in evidence provided it embraces enough of them to enable the witness to formulate an intelligent opinion.”

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Bluebook (online)
1952 OK 27, 242 P.2d 417, 206 Okla. 269, 1952 Okla. LEXIS 543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ada-coca-cola-bottling-co-v-asbury-okla-1952.