Lewis v. Amchem Products, Inc.

510 S.W.2d 46, 1974 Mo. App. LEXIS 1324
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 13, 1974
Docket9532
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 510 S.W.2d 46 (Lewis v. Amchem Products, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lewis v. Amchem Products, Inc., 510 S.W.2d 46, 1974 Mo. App. LEXIS 1324 (Mo. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

TITUS, Judge.

Amchem Products, Inc., defendant and third-party plaintiff, appeals from the order of the Circuit Court of New Madrid County dismissing its third-party petition [Rule 52.11(a), V.A.M.R.] 1 against third-party defendant, Pete Malone, d/b/a Agair Company, Inc. 2

Plaintiffs Lewis (Count I) and Deane (Count II) stated in their petition that in 1970 their respective acreages of soybeans became infested with cockleburs and that they contracted with Malone to treat the infestation with Butyrac 175 via aerial spray. It was averred that defendant Am-chem manufactured the chemical, which it supplied “through the marketing service of Delta Custom Farm Services, Inc.,” and represented that Butyrac 175 could be applied and used “in controlling weeds, cock-leburs and other similar infectation [sic] without causing harm to growing crops.” The petition alleged that Malone, in order to carry out the contract with plaintiffs, purchased Butyrac 175 from Delta “in the original containers and [that it] was not modified or altered in any fashion that would have caused the chemical to destroy the soybean crop upon which it was being applied.” However, the pleading continued, “the said chemical, Butyrac 175, as manufactured and supplied by defendant . was not as represented but rather contained impurities or other chemical defects making the said product unreasonably dangerous to the soybeans upon which it was applied,” and that immediately after Malone applied the chemical the “crop of soybeans was destroyed and became unfit for sale,” all to plaintiffs’ damages. Defendant Amchem’s answer was a denial of “each and every statement, allegation, averment, matter of fact and thing set forth in . Plaintiffs’ Petition.”

In its third-party petition Amchem averred that if plaintiffs sustained any damages, which Amchem denied, it was “the direct and proximate result of the acts of Pete Malone individually and as the *48 agent, servant and employee of Agair Company, Inc.”, in that Malone “carelessly and negligently applied some product other than a product manufactured by” Amchem, “carelessly and negligently added surfactants, soap, oils and other elements to whatever other element he applied to plaintiffs’ crops, . . . carelessly and negligently mixed chemicals in the tanks of his airplanes with other chemicals which would result in a toxic effect to plaintiffs’ crops; carelessly and negligently failed to clean the tanks and spray apparatus of his airplanes before loading whatever chemical he placed on plaintiffs’ crops; . . . carelessly and negligently failed to determine what chemical he was spraying on plaintiffs’ crops and carelessly and negligently failed to properly mix and prepare the proper proportions and solutions of said chemical [and] if Pete Malone used this defendant’s product, which this defendant specifically denies, Pete Malone carelessly and negligently failed to mix it to the proper solutions and in the proper proportions and failed to apply same in the proper concentration.” The third-party petition, seeking full indemnity, prayed for the amount of any judgment which might be rendered against Amchem and all expenses, costs and attorneys’ fees incurred in defense of the action filed by plaintiffs.

In their briefs, the parties to this appeal agree that we should consider both the plaintiffs’ petition and Amchem’s third-party petition to determine whether the latter states a cause of action in indemnity. State ex rel. Siegel v. McLaughlin, 315 S. W.2d 499, 502 [1] (Mo.App.1958). Before we do so, however, it is not amiss to recast, briefly, legal principles which bind us on review. When joint tort-feasors are in pari delicto, i. e., when each is chargeable with active or affirmative negligence contributing to the injury for which recovery was had, neither is entitled to indemnity from the other [Union Electric Co. v. Magary, 373 S.W.2d 16, 22 [3] (Mo. 1963)], although one may be entitled to contribution from the other if they are joint judgment debtors. § 537.060 RSMo 1969. “But the statement of the principle itself suggests, and the cases demonstrate, that ‘in many situations, joint tort-feasors are held not to be in pari delicto.’ ” Listerman v. Day and Night Plumbing & Heating Serv., 384 S.W.2d 111, 117 (Mo.App.1964). Thus, “[w]here a person has supplied to another a chattel which because of the supplier’s negligence or other fault is dangerously defective for the use for which it is supplied and both have become liable in tort to a third person injured by such use, the supplier is under a duty to indemnify the other for expenditures properly made in discharge of the claim of the third person, if the other used or disposed of the chattel in reliance upon the supplier’s care and if, as between the two, such reliance was justifiable.” Restatement, Restitution § 93(1); see also Restatement, Restitution § 95. To state it differently, as Missouri authority has, when the supplier or manufacturer of an article is actively or primarily negligent by supplying a product that is unreasonably dangerous for the use for which it was made or supplied, and the person to whom the item is supplied justifiably relied upon the supplier’s care but is nevertheless passively or secondarily negligent in causing injury to a third person be-. cause of his failure to discover, correct or remedy the danger, the two negligent parties, though both may be liable to the third person, are not in pari delicto and the one that was passively negligent may maintain an action for indemnity against the one that was actively negligent. Simon v. Kansas City Rug Company, 460 S.W.2d 596, 599-600 (Mo. 1970); Kansas City Southern Ry. Co. v. Payway Feed Mills, Inc., 338 S.W.2d 1, 5-6 [2] (Mo.1960); Barb v. Farmers Insurance Exchange, 281 S.W.2d 297, 304 [10, 11] (Mo.1955); Western Cas. & Surety Co. v. Shell Oil Co., 413 S.W.2d 550, 553-554, 555-556 [3] (Mo.App.1967). In determining the sufficiency of the third-party petition to state a cause of action, we must assume the truth of the facts alleged in plaintiffs’ petition *49 and the petition of third-party plaintiff [Campbell v. Preston, 379 S.W.2d 557, 560 [5] (Mo. 1964)], and “accept as true the allegation that third-party plaintiff is guilty of some negligence and then determine from the remaining allegations whether the third-party defendant is guilty of such active and primary negligence that it should be required to indemnify third-party plaintiff to the extent that it may be held liable to plaintiff.” Johnson v. California Spray-Chemical Company, 362 S.W.2d 630, 634 (Mo.1962).

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Bluebook (online)
510 S.W.2d 46, 1974 Mo. App. LEXIS 1324, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-amchem-products-inc-moctapp-1974.