Flaccomio v. Eysink

100 A. 510, 129 Md. 367, 1916 Md. LEXIS 180
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedDecember 13, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 100 A. 510 (Flaccomio v. Eysink) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Flaccomio v. Eysink, 100 A. 510, 129 Md. 367, 1916 Md. LEXIS 180 (Md. 1916).

Opinion

Thomas, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This suit was brought in the Court below by TTeni’y P. Eysink against Vincent Elaccomio, Lee Sonneborn, trading as Lee Sonneborn & Company, and the Sherwood Distilling Company.

*369 The amended declaration contains four counts. The first count charges, that “'on or about the 24th day of January, 1913, the said defendants, their agents and servants did illegally and unlawfully have, keep and offer for sale, and did sell to the said plaintiff a certain medicinal or chemical preparation or liquid intended for internal use, lo wit, whiskey, in which methyl or wood alcohol was used, placed or contained in the stead of spirit, grain or ethyl alcohol, so that said medicinal or chemical preparation or liquid intended for internal use, called or1 known as whiskey, was dangerous and harmful to he drunk or used internally, which said danger and harm was known or by the exercise of reasonable care could have been known to the said defendants, their agents and servants: that the said plaintiff did not know and was not warned or informed of the harmful or dangerous ingredient or substance contained in said whiskey or liquid, and lie. the said plaintiff, did drink the same, whereby, by reason of said harmful substance or ingredient in said whiskey or liquid the said plaintiff was caused to suffer great and permanent physical hurt and injury, and to lose (or impair) the faculty of seeing or sense of sight and became blind,” etc.

The second count alleges that, the “defendants, their agents and servants, in making, manufacturing, mixing or compounding a certain medicine, medicinal or chemical preparation intended for internal use, to wit: AA'hiskev, did illegally and unlawfully substitute or use methyl or wood alcohol in the place and stead of spirit, grain or ethyl alcohol, so that said preparation or so-called whiskey or liquid Avas, and became so harmful and dangerous for internal use as to endanger the health of persons internally using the same (all of AA'hich the said defendants kneAv, or on account of the said substance being for internal use ought to have been known to the said defendants); that the said defendants, their agents or servants, did (intentionally, wrongfully and illegally offer for sale and sell or) fill certain bottles or glass receptacles with said substance or preparation and keep and offer the same for sale, and that on or about the 24th day of January, *370 1913, the said plaintiff did innocently purchase certain of said preparation, and without knowledge or warning' as to the harmful or dangerous nature of the same, the said plaintiff did drink of said preparation to his great loss, injury and damage,” etc.

The third count alleges that the defendants “did (tortiously) illegally and unlawfully and intentionally have, keep and offer for sale and. did sell to the said plaintiff a certain medicinal or chemical preparation or liquid intended for internal use, to wit: whiskey, in which methyl or wood alcohol was used, placed or contained in the stead of spirit or ethyl alcohol,” so that the said whiskey was dangerous <cto> he drunk or used internally,” and that the plaintiff, not knowing that it was dangerous, did drink of said whiskey and was greatly injured, etc.

The fourth count avers that the defendants, “their agents and servants, made, had or kept and offered for sale a certain beverage, composition or mixture called or labeled whiskey, in the mixture or manufacture of which methyl or wood alcohol, which is of a dangerous and poisonous character so as to require great care in, its use and not to be used for internal purposes;, was (negligently, fraudulently and) wrongfully used in the place and stead of ethyl or grain or pure alcohol (a. much more expensive substance than methyl alcohol), and on or about the 24th day of January, 1913, a bottle or portion of said, so-called whiskey was sold to the said plaintiff for internal use,” and that the plaintiff “did use and drink” said mixture “without suspicion or knowledge of said danger” and by reason thereof became ill “and lost the sight of his eyes,” -etc.

The defendants demurred to the declaration, and the demurrer having been overruled, the docket entries state, “pleas ‘did not commit the wrongs alleged’ were then entered short by all the defendants, and issue joined short.” There was a judgment of “non pros” as to the Sherwood Distilling Company which the appellee states in his brief was entered at the close of the plaintiff’s testimony, and this appeal is by *371 the other defendants, Vincent Flaccomio and Lee Sonnehorn, from the judgment against them in favor of the plaintiff.

The record contains one hundred and fifty-two exceptions. One hundred and fifty-one of these relate to the rulings of the Court below on the evidence, and the remaining exception is to the overruling of special exceptions to the plaintiff’s second and seventh prayers; to the granting of those prayers, and to the rejection of certain prayers of the defendants.

The first, second, third, fourth and fifth prayers of Flaeoomio, and the five prayers of Sonnehorn asked for instructions that- under the pleadings there was no. evidence in the ease legally sufficient to entitle the plaintiff to recover on any of the counts in the declaration. The Court below granted these prayers of the defendant Sonnehorn in reference to the first, second and third counts, but rejected bis prayers, denying the plaintiff’s right to recover on the fourth count. The Court also granted the1 prayer of Flaccomio in reference to the second count, but refused his prayers withdrawing the ease from the j ury on the first, third and fourth counts. The ruling of the Court, on these prayers presents the important and controlling question in the case.

The evidence produced at the trial, assuming that all of it was admissible, shows or tends to show, that in January, 1913, the defendant, Vincent Flaccomio, kept a saloon in Baltimore City at (120 Forrest street. The plaintiff, who at that time lived at 704 Fast Monument street, near the corner of Forrest and Monument streets, went to Flaeoomio’s saloon about seven o’clock in the evening of January 24th and asked for a half pint, of “Sherwood Whiskey” or “Sherwood live Whiskey,” and received from the bartender a half pint bottle labeled “Sherwood .Rye Whiskey.” He took the bottle to his home and he and several friends drank the contents. About a hour later, he went back to Flaccomio’s saloon and asked for another half pint of “Sherwood Whiskey” or “Sherwood Rye Whiskey” and the bartender gave him a half pint bottle labeled as the first bottle was, and be and bis friends eou *372 sumed the contents of that bottle. The following afternoon the plaintiff became quite sick and partially blind, and was finally taken to the Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital on the 4th of February, 1913, where he remained for about sixty days, under treatment for loss of sight. The physician who attended him at the hospital stated at the trial that his loss of sight was due to wood alcohol poison, and that he wonld not recover from the effects of it.

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Bluebook (online)
100 A. 510, 129 Md. 367, 1916 Md. LEXIS 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flaccomio-v-eysink-md-1916.