Bishop v. East Ohio Gas Co.

41 Ohio Law. Abs. 353, 1943 Ohio App. LEXIS 874
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 28, 1943
DocketNo. 18969
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 41 Ohio Law. Abs. 353 (Bishop v. East Ohio Gas Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bishop v. East Ohio Gas Co., 41 Ohio Law. Abs. 353, 1943 Ohio App. LEXIS 874 (Ohio Ct. App. 1943).

Opinions

OPINION

By GUERNSEY, P. J.

This is an appeal upon questions of law, from a judgment of the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in an action pending therein wherein the appellee, S. M. Der-Hagopian Bishop was plaintiff and the appellant, The East Ohio Gas Company was defendant.

The action is one for damages for the destruction of two cultures of Almalac, a lactic acid milk preparation of the sour [358]*358milk type, and the consequent destruction of plaintiff’s business of manufacturing and selling Almalac founded upon such cultures, allegedly caused by an unlawful entry of an employee of the defendant into the basement of the house wherein the plaintiff lived and had his laboratory for the production of such cultures.

The case was tried before a judge and jury in 1939 and a verdict of $10,500.00 was returned, and after a remittitur of $3250.00, a judgment was entered for $5250.0Ch The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment for error in the admission of evidence and for the further reason that the verdict was excessive, appearing to have been given under the influence of passion and prejudice. Thereafter, a second trial was had in the Common Pleas Court in 1942 wherein a verdict was returned for plaintiff in the sum of $15,000.00 and again a remittitur was made in the sum of $4500.00 and judgment was entered in the sum of $10,500.00.

It is from the second judgment that this appeal is taken.

The material facts in the case, as disclosed by the record, are as follows:

In 1903, the plaintiff brought from his native land, Armenia, a four ounce portion of Yoghourt. Yoghourt is the name of a lactic acid milk made from cow’s milk and contains an active agent known as Bacillus Bulgaricus. This Yoghourt milk is reputed to have been used in the Balkan States for a long time and the longevity of the inhabitants thereof is attributed to the use of this milk. Yoghourt is considered a remedy for indigestion, constipation, gas formation’and other intestinal tract disorders. Almalac had similar therapeutic effects.

After his arrival in this country the plaintiff matriculated as a student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and received from such University the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Pharmaceutical Chemist. He thereafter worked for short periods of time for various pharmaceutical houses.

After a series of chemical, bacteriological and physiological tests and research, the plaintiff segregated from the fourteen types of bacilli present in Yoghourt milk, five beneficial, healthy, harmonious and active bacilli thereby eliminating nine types of bacilli which were not beneficial. From the segregat[359]*359ed bacilli he produced a lactic acid milk culture which he named Almalac, and had the name copyrighted. One of the bacilli in the Almalac culture was similar to, if not identical with, Bacillus Bulgaricus.

, There is no evidence tending to prove that the therapeutic effects of Almanlac differed in any way from or were in any way more beneficial than the therapeutic effect of Yoghourt or similar lactic acid cow’s milk preparations containing Bacillus Bulgaricus. Lactic acid milk cultures, including cultures of Bacillus Bulgaricus, are readily obtainable on the market at prices ranging from one dollar to two dollars per culture.

The business of the manufacture and sale of Almalac by the plaintiff began in October, 1916, and ended on the 29th day of April, 1935, when the two cultures of Almalac plaintiff had on hand were destroyed by the unlawful entry of defendant’s employee on the premises of plaintiff, as hereinafter mentioned.

In addition to making Almalac, plaintiff also made and sold other milk products which he called Acidophilus, Bulgaris, Vilac, Almabacil and Kumyss.

From 1917 to 1921, inclusive, ninety-five percent of the-profit of his lactic acid milk business accrued from the sale of Almalac, and from 1922 to April 29, 1935, inclusive, ninety percent of his profits accrued from the sale of Almalac.

On April 29, 1935, in the middle of the afternoon, an employee of the defendant entered the basement of the home of plaintiff for the purpose of sealing a meter on account of the non-payment of a gas bill which was owing by the plaintiff to the defendant. Entrance to the basement was gained through a trap door which as it swung on hinges could be lifted up. From this trap door defendant’s employee descended eight or nine steps to the outsidebasement door which was locked shut by a padlock on the outside and by means of two hooks, one fastened over the head of a screw and the other fastened in an "eye” on the inside. The meter was on the side of the basement opposite the door. The employee of the defendant, after opening the trap door and proceeding down the steps to the basement door in some manner unlocked the padlock on the outside of the basement door and forced the door open, the force used by him being sufficient to displace the hook which went over the screw head and to pull out the other hook on [360]*360the inside of said door. Defendant’s employee then proceeded ■to the meter and sealed it, leaving notice to that effect, and then retraced his steps, locking the padlock on the ouside of said door.

Behind this inner door in the basement proper, on a board about two inches wide, a foot long and an inch or an inch and a half thick, about one foot from the door, were placed two Erlenmeyer flasks containing the only cultures of Almalac which the plaintiff then owned or possesed. These flasks were made of thin glass, somewhat pyramidical in shape and were sealed with cotton. These cultures were placed by the plaintiff in the basement from force of habit and perhaps to protect his Almalac cultures from contamination by his other cultures which he had in his laboratory on the first floor of his dwelling house. The temperatures in the basement and in the laboratory were about the same.

When the inside door was pushed open by defendant’s employee it struck the Erlenmeyer flasks containing the Almalac cultures and broke them and spilled the contents on the floor, resulting in the complete destruction of the flasks and the cul- • tures. Plaintiff had and has no sample, formula, or analysis of the culture of Almalac. At one place in the record his testimony is to the effect that the cultures cannot be reproduced, and at another place his testimony is to the effect that it may take a year to ten years of research and experimentation to reproduce the culture.

From the business records of the plaintiff in evidence, and his testimony that ninety-five percent of his profit for the period from 1917 to 1921, inclusive and ninety percent of his profit for the period from 1922 to April 29, 1935, inclusive, accrued from the sale of Almalac, it appears that plaintiff, from the manufacture and sale of Almalac for the years 1917 to 1934, inclusive, had a net average annual income of $1861.18; for the period from 1925 to 1934, inclusive, a net average annual income of $1220.16; for the years 1930 to 1934, inclusive, a net average annual income of $539.61; and for the first four months of 1935, the sum of $99.30 which if continued and carried out at the same ratio for the balance of the year would yield a net average annual income of $297.09.

From May 1, 1925, to May 1, 1935 a period of ten years, considering the business year as starting on May 1st and end-[361]

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

Related

JGR, Inc. v. Thomasville Furniture Industries, Inc.
748 F. Supp. 2d 746 (N.D. Ohio, 2010)
Henry v. City of Akron
501 N.E.2d 659 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1985)
Jaynes v. Vetel
80 N.E.2d 621 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 Ohio Law. Abs. 353, 1943 Ohio App. LEXIS 874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bishop-v-east-ohio-gas-co-ohioctapp-1943.