Belcher v. Goff Bros.

134 S.E. 588, 145 Va. 448, 1926 Va. LEXIS 403
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedSeptember 23, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 134 S.E. 588 (Belcher v. Goff Bros.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Belcher v. Goff Bros., 134 S.E. 588, 145 Va. 448, 1926 Va. LEXIS 403 (Va. 1926).

Opinion

Burks, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

[450]*450There are five assignments of error. The first is because the verdict is contrary to the evidence. This need not be considered as the evidence is abundant to support the verdict. The fourth and fifth are to the rulings on the admission and rejection of evidence. It is admitted in the petition for the writ of error that, if all of these rulings had been favorable to the plaintiff in error, no other verdict could have been found under the instructions of the court. This leaves the case to stand or fall on the instructions.

At the time of the injury complained of, and for some time prior thereto, Goff Bros, conducted a mercantile business at Grundy, in Buchanan county. They carried the articles usually carried in a country store, including kerosene or coal oil. They never at any time carried or sold gasoline. They had for several years bought this oil from High Grade Oil Company, of Williamson, West Virginia, of whom the oil in question was purchased, and never at any time prior to the injury complained of had any complaint been made of the character of the oil. They usually bought two drums of fifty-five gallons each every month, and emptied them together in their oil tank from which their customers were served. Shortly before the accident, they purchased two drums and emptied them into their tank as aforesaid. They had sold only forty-four gallons of it at the time of the injury complained of.

On May 17th or 18th, plaintiff bought of the defendants a gallon of this oil, filled her lamps with it, and used them for several nights without observing any unusual results. On the morning of May 22, 1923, the plaintiff’s husband put wood and coal in the kitchen stove, poured some of the oil on it, ignited it and went back to bed. About half an hour afterwards the [451]*451plaintiff got np and found that the fire was not burning. She says she examined the stove and found that there was no Are in it. Thereupon she put wood in the end door of the stove, leaving the ends of the wood sticking out, and commenced pouring oil from the can on the ends of the sticks, when there was an explosion, setting her on Are, and causing her very serious injury.

There was much evidence tending to show that there was gasoline mixed with the oil, but, save as hereinafter noted, there was no evidence tending to show that, prior to the sale to the plaintiff, the defendants had any intimation of any trouble about the oil, or that it was not in every respect what it purported to be. After the injury, there was the usual neighborhood talk about it, and different witnesses testiAed to their experience with the use of the off, but these facts were not communicated to the defendants prior to the sale to the plaintiff.

The only eyewitnesses to the explosion and what immediately preceded it were the plaintiff and her husband. The husband testiAed: “I got up and started a Are, or at least I thought I had started it.” On cross-examination and re-examination in chief, he testiAed as follows:

“Q. Mr. Belcher, when you built a Are the morning your wife got burned, tell the jury what you did and what you put in the stove?
“A. I put wood and coal and oil.
“Q. Did you use the same can your wife used?
“A. I reckon so.
“Q. Did you pour oil in at the top of" the stove?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Did you leave the Are burning when you went back to bed?
“A. Yes, sir; I thought so.

[452]*452 Re-Direct Examination.

“Q. When yon put the match to it what did it do?

“A. It flashed, apparently quicker than lamp oil had been doing.”

The plaintiff testified that her husband got up to build a fire in the cook stove, and, after starting it, went back to bed; that about half an hour thereafter she got up and couldn’t hear the fire burning; that she “went to the stove and took the top off and looked in” and did not see any fire; that she picked up three or four sticks of wood and put them in the stove, at the side door, and left the ends sticking out so that she could pour oil on them; that she picked up the oil can and went to pour oil on the ends of the sticks of wood, holding the can about two inches above the wood; that she did not think any oil had touched the wood, when there was an explosion and she was badly burned from her waist up; that the explosion occurred on May 22; that the oil was purchased May 17 or 18; that two “tolerably large” lamps in the house, which were used for lighting, had been filled from the oil can on May 17 or 18, and had been used every night thereafter before the explosion. In describing her investigation as to fire in the stove, she states: “When I got up I didn’t take time to put on my clothes—I couldn’t hear the fire burning and I didn’t think it was doing any good, and I went in, but couldn’t see any fire.” She further testified that on the morning she was burned, one of the defendants came to see her and “I was telling him about building the fire, and he said there was gasoline in that oil, or I would not have gotten burned.”

John Ratliff testified that before the plaintiff was burned he called for some kerosene oil and Mr.. Goff [453]*453told Mm they had some but they thought it was mixed with gasoline, and consequently he did not buy it. The cross-examination of this witness renders it uncertain whether the conversation he relates took place before or after the plaintiff was burned. At all events he nowhere states that it was before the sale of the oil to the plaintiff. Arthur Goff, with whom it is alleged the conversation took place, testified that he did not make any such statement.

The statement alleged to have been made by one of the defendants to the plaintiff immediately after the injury, if made, was clearly the mere expression of an opinion rather than the statement of a fact. The statement was denied by the defendant.

Upon substantially this testimony, instructions were asked by both sides. The court refused four of those offered by the plaintiff and gave six offered by the defendants. They are copied in the margin.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Farren v. Bobby Earl Gilbert & Roanoke Restaurant Service, Inc.
297 S.E.2d 668 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1982)
Gillette v. Kelling Nut Co.
185 F.2d 294 (Fourth Circuit, 1950)
Kratz Et Vir v. American Stores Co.
59 A.2d 138 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1948)
Ebbert v. Philadelphia Electric Co.
198 A. 323 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1937)
Universal Motor Co. v. Snow
140 S.E. 653 (Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1927)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
134 S.E. 588, 145 Va. 448, 1926 Va. LEXIS 403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/belcher-v-goff-bros-va-1926.