Colonna v. Rosedale Dairy Co.

186 S.E. 94, 166 Va. 314, 1936 Va. LEXIS 191
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJune 11, 1936
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 186 S.E. 94 (Colonna v. Rosedale Dairy Co.) 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
Colonna v. Rosedale Dairy Co., 186 S.E. 94, 166 Va. 314, 1936 Va. LEXIS 191 (Va. 1936).

Opinion

Holt, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

On February 21,1933, the Rosedale Dairy Company sold to M. S. Colonna milk contaminated with the germs of Malta Fever. Colonna had been purchasing milk from this dairy for some time, buying it for ordinary domestic uses in his household. Shep W. Colonna, son, of M. S. Colonna, lived with his father and was a member of his household, and it is the son who was made ill by drinking this infected milk. He is the plaintiff here. His notice of motion for judgment was filed on February 24, 1934. It consists of two counts, one upon contract and one in tort. On motion of the defendant he was required to amend the contract count and to state in the amendment whether he relied upon an express or upon an implied warranty. This he did over protest and charged that the warranty was implied. There) is no merit in this protest.

The defendant demurred to the original notice and to it as amended, and among other objections raised by this demurrer it is said that there was a misjoiner in that there was one count on contract and. another in. tort, and for the further reason that they were barred by the statute of limitations.

Tort actions like this must be brought within one year [317]*317after the right to bring the same shall have first accrued. Code, section 5818. The second count was stricken out and as to this no error is assigned. By order of September 25, 1934, there was final judgment for the defendant on demurrer.

Plaintiff in his fourth assignment of error said:

“The court by its order entered September 25, 1934 (R., p. 14), erred in sustaining the defendant’s demurrer upon the grounds, (1) that no privity of contract existed between the plaintiff and defendant, and (2) that there was no implied warranty on the part of the defendant of absolute freedom from germs alleged to have been contained in said milk.”

These assignments go to the heart of this case. Is there here any implied warranty?

“In 3 Black. Com. 165, it is stated as a sound and elementary proposition that in contracts for provisions it is always implied that they are wholesome, and if they are not, case lies to recover damages for the deceit. In the sale of provisions for domestic use, the vendor is bound to know) that they are sound and wholesome at his peril. This is a principle not only salutary, but necessary to the preservation of health and life.” Van Bracklin v. Fonda, 12 Johns. (N. Y.) 468, 7 Am. Dec. 339.

This common-law rule has been approved by many text writers and has been upheld by the decisions of many courts.

“Sale of Provisions; General Rule.—An exception to the general rule that a warranty of quality will not he implied has been recognized, from an early date, in the case of a sale of provisions by a dealer for immediate domestic use, and it is generally held in such a case that a warranty of soundness or wholesomeness will be implied.” 24 R. C. L. 195.

“A retail dealer in provisions is liable in consequential damages to a person injured by the unwholesomeness or poisonous quality of food sold direct to him for immediate consumption, where in making the purchase [318]*318the purchaser relies on the skill and judgment of the dealer in selecting the same.” Note, 16 Ann. Cas. 497.

“The preponderance, at least, of modem authorities, is to the effect that, upon the sale of food to be immediately put to domestic uses, there is, as between the dealer and the consumer, an implied warranty that such food is wholesome and fit to be eaten. This rule proceeds upon the assumption that the seller has some means of knowledge, opportunities for inspection, or sources of information which are not shared by the purchaser, in consequence of which, when the seller knows that the food was bought for consumption, he warrants as a matter of law that the goods are fit for that purpose.” Note, 90 A. L. R., p. 1270.

See also, an extended note in 5 A. L. R., p. 1115, and 25 C. J., p. 783.

This subject has been carefully reviewed by Rugg, C. J., in Friend v. Childs Dining Hall Co., 231 Mass. 65,120 N. E. 407, 409, 5 A. L. R. 1100. He there restates the Old English rule: “* * * ‘if a man goes into a tavern for refreshment, and corrupt drink or meat is there sold to him, which occasions his sickness, an action clearly lies against the tavern keeper * * * an action lies against him without express warranty, for it is a warranty in law.’ Burnby v. Bollett, 16 Mees. & W. 644, 646, 647, 654 [153 Eng. Reprint, 1348], where are the references to numerous older cases.” In¡ this case there was a dissent, not because this rule did not apply to retail dealers hut upon the ground that it did not apply to the innkeeper.

In Race v. Krum, 222 N. Y. 410, 118 N. E. 853, 854, L. R. A. 1918F, 1172, it is said:

“The general rule, established by the weight of authority in the United States and England, is that, accompanying all sales by a retail dealer of articles of food for immediate use, there is an implied warranty that the same is fit for human consumption.”

We find nothing in Gimenez v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 264 N. Y. 390, 191 N. E. 27, which weakens this [319]*319statement. It was there held that crab meat sold by a retailer to a customer by implication warranted it to be fit for human consumption. It is true that this was under a New York statute, Personal Property Law (Consol. Laws, ch. 41), section 96, but that statute in this particular was declaratory of what the law had there been since the early case of Van Bracklin v. Fonda, supra.

In the late case of Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Eiseman, 259 Ky. 103, 81 S. W. (2d) 900, 901, 903, the court, in commenting upon a statute (Ky. St., section 2651b-15, subd. 1) reading as follows: “Where the buyer, expressly or by implication, makes known to the seller the particular purpose for which the goods are required, and it appears that the buyer relies on the seller’s skill or judgment (whether he be the grower or manufacturer or not), there is an implied warranty that the goods shall be reasonably fit for such purpose,” said, that it “embodies the principle of the common-law governing sales by the retailer to the purchasing customer of provision in a visible condition for his immediate domestic use.”,

Another very recent case is that of Beyer v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (Mo. App.), 75 S. W. (2d) 642, 645. There the question of proof of warranty came up. The court said that impliedly followed from proof of sale of the product designed for immediate consumption.

This general rule was also recognized in F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Wilson (C. C. A.), 74 F. (2d) 439, 441, 98 A. L. R. 681, where Circuit Judge Sibley said:

“In a sale at common-law there was generally no warranty of quality or fitness implied, but caveat emptor was the rule. An exception obtained when a dealer sold food for immediate domestic use, * *' *.”

This rule as to sale of food for immediate consumption, that is for immediate domestic use, is spoken of as well recognized in Lynch v. Hotel Bond Co., 117 Conn. 128, 167 Atl. 99.

“The consequences resulting from the sale of an impure or poison food or beverage may be so disastrous to [320]

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Bluebook (online)
186 S.E. 94, 166 Va. 314, 1936 Va. LEXIS 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colonna-v-rosedale-dairy-co-va-1936.