Haberly Ex Rel. Haberly v. Reardon Co.

319 S.W.2d 859, 1958 Mo. LEXIS 587
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 10, 1958
Docket46082, 46081
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 319 S.W.2d 859 (Haberly Ex Rel. Haberly v. Reardon Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haberly Ex Rel. Haberly v. Reardon Co., 319 S.W.2d 859, 1958 Mo. LEXIS 587 (Mo. 1958).

Opinions

COIL, Commissioner.

The trial court ordered the above-styled' cases consolidated and tried jointly. In the-first, plaintiff was a 12-year-old boy (when, injured) who, through his father as next friend, obtained a verdict and judgment for $15,000 as damages for personal injuries. The other was the father’s action for incurred and probable future expenses and loss of companionship by reason of his son’s-injuries in which there was a $400 verdict. Inasmuch as all the present issues turn on the question of defendant’s liability for the-personal injuries suffered by the son, we shall hereinafter treat the cases as thoughi the boy were the only plaintiff.

Defendant manufactured and sold to various distributors a product known as Bon-dex, a cement paint. As plaintiff’s father was using Bondex, some of it got into plaintiff’s right eye (under circumstances to be described) causing loss of sight. Plaintiff claims defendant was negligent ini [861]*861failing to warn that Bondex contained lime or of the danger if any Bondex lodged in an eye.

Ralph A. Haberly, the father, and his family, including plaintiff, lived in Buffalo, New York. He had placed bricks at angles along the sides of his driveway so they formed rows giving a saw-tooth appearance. He desired to paint those bricks white. His wife purchased a box of Bondex at a corner store. Mr. Haberly read the directions on the box and mixed the paint, then in powder form, with water as directed. He read these words, among others: “Caution: Inasmuch as the alkalinity of Bon-dex may he irritating to tender or sensitive skin, it is advisable to use a paddle for mixing, and to avoid excessive or prolonged contact with the skin.” He also read at another place, “Portland cement — 47%; calcium oxide (hydrated) 44% — aluminum silicate, 4% — tinting materials, sealer and curing agents, total less than 5%.” Those two writings on the box were the only notifications to the father (user) which defendant contends were in the nature of cautions or warnings.

Plaintiff, Ralph T. Haberly, was to prepare the bricks for painting by using a small hoe to scrape away leaves or other debris that had accumulated around them. Plaintiff, who had prepared some of the bricks for painting, was working ahead of and about three feet to the right of his father, who followed and painted the bricks with a regular paint brush. It is a fair inference that both father and son were working either on their knees or in stooped or squatting positions. The father called to the son informing him that he had missed scraping the leaves away from a particular; brick and directing him to return and do so. ¡As the father called to the boy, he rose to a standing position and, as we understand, held the paint brush in his right hand at his side and with the bristles extending to the right. The boy, apparently being then in a"\ kneeling position, began to arise and swung ' or stepped to his left toward his father and then started to go downward into a kneeling position at the site of the brick he was to clean and, in the process, his right eye ran into or came in contact with the paint brush which was then dripping with Bondex, causing a quantity of it to lodge in his eye. He experienced immediate pain. The father and mother quickly ran water into the eye. Within an estimated five to-seven minutes following the accident the boy was on a hospital operating table and under the care of a doctor. The eye, however, was so burned that the sight, other than ability to distinguish between light and dark, was permanently gone.

The father, who was and had been for many years a truck driver for an oil company, had never before used Bondex and assumed that it was like any other outside white paint. He had been reared on a farm and knew what lime was and knew of its strength and, we infer, danger, hut did not know that calcium oxide was lime or what calcium oxide was, and did not know what Portland cement contained lime. He said that if he had known that the Bondex contained at least SO per cent lime, he either would not have used it or would have taken precautions to make absolutely certain that none of it came in contact with or went into anyone’s eyes; that the words on the box to the effect that it might he irritating to a tender skin did not convey any warning to him that the Bondex was highly dangerous if lodged in an eye or that it would put an eye out if some of it were lodged therein for only a few minutes; that he knew that some detergents or soaps might be irritating to a tender skin and that that was the connection in which he thought of the meaning of the words of caution on the box. The father further testified that he did not intend for the hoy or the boy’s eye to come in contact with the paint brush and did not intend for any of the paint to get in his boy’s eye, irrespective of whether the paint being used-was Bondex or a relatively harmless paint or other harmless mixture. The hoy testified that he did not want or intend to get anything in his eye.

[862]*862It is important to here note that there was no direct evidence that the bristles of the paint brush contacted any portion of the boy’s eyeball. Further, that the evidence did not show the quantity of Bondex which entered the eye and there was no evidence adduced either that the manner of the entry of or that any particular quantity of Bon-dex entering an eye was of decisive importance in determining what damage to the eye would ensue.

Calcium oxide is commonly known as lime, and, when chemically combined with water, forms calcium hydroxide. If water is added to calcium hydroxide the resulting solution is highly alkaline, which alkalinity is indicated by the symbol pH. The symbol pH7 indicates a neutral condition, below 7 indicates acidity, the lower the number, the greater the acidity, while above 7 indicates alkalinity progressively greater to a top o'f 14. The pH of calcium oxide in solution is 1254 to 13 and of Bondex in solution, 12.01. Portland cement is 50 to 60 per cent calcium oxide. The corrosive and caustic effect of lime on the eyes had been known for 50 or 100 years. The destructive changes in the eye caused by lime or by another material of high alkalinity occur within a few minutes and the chemical actions on the cornea of the eye of a concentrated solution of calcium hydroxide are irreversible. Plaintiff, as a result of the Bondex in his eye, has a scar over the cornea of the right eye, a drooping of the upper eyelid, and the right eye turns upward and doesn’t track with the left.

One of plaintiff’s expert witnesses said that it was not common knowledge that calcium oxide was the same as or known as lime. And defendant’s executive vice-president said that he had learned only two weeks prior to trial that calcium oxide was lime. ' «

Defendant’s sole contention on appeal is that the court erred in failing to sustain its after-trial motions to set aside the respective judgments and enter judgments for defendant for the reasons that defendant was not negligent as to plaintiff and, if so, failure to warn was not a cause of the casualty.

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Bluebook (online)
319 S.W.2d 859, 1958 Mo. LEXIS 587, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haberly-ex-rel-haberly-v-reardon-co-mo-1958.