Michel v. Branham

1958 OK 159, 327 P.2d 440, 1958 Okla. LEXIS 509
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 24, 1958
Docket37978
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1958 OK 159 (Michel v. Branham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Michel v. Branham, 1958 OK 159, 327 P.2d 440, 1958 Okla. LEXIS 509 (Okla. 1958).

Opinion

DAVISON-, Justice.

This is an action brought by Mary Michel, plaintiff, against Joe Branham, do *441 ing business as Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company, to recover damages sustained to her •right hand when a bottle of Pepsi-Cola hurst in her hand. Defendant is the bottler and distributor of the beverage. Cartons of Pepsi-Cola containing the bottle in question were sold by him and delivered to a :Safeway store in the City of Tulsa. Plaintiff purchased the bottle in question from the store.

In her petition plaintiff charges no spe■cific act of negligence against the defendant. She relies solely upon the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur in order to establish negligence. In her petition she alleges the above facts and in addition thereto that the bottle ■containing the Pepsi-Cola after it left the possession of defendant, and while in her hands up to the time of the explosion, was in the same condition in which it was while in the hands of defendant and had not been subjected to any unusual changes in temperature or atmospheric conditions after it left defendant’s possession up to the time the explosion occurred.

The trial court at the close of the evidence on motion of defendant directed the jury to return a verdict in his favor. The jury as directed returned a verdict in favor of defendant. Plaintiff’s motion for new trial was overruled and judgment was entered on the verdict in favor of defendant.

Plaintiff appeals and in her proposition number one contends:

“While as a general rule the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur cannot be invoked where the instrumentality is not under the exclusive control of the defendant at the time of the injury, the doctrine may nevertheless be applied where there is an affirmative showing on the part of the plaintiff that the instrumentality causing the injury was not subjected to any extraneous harmful force while in the hands of the plaintiff or third parties after the instrumentality leaves the hands of the defendant.”

We think the above statement constitutes a fair statement of the res ipsa loquitur rule. Texas Co. v. Jamison, 191 Okl. 283, 129 P.2d 85. However, in our opinion the evidence offered by plaintiff does not bring the case within the exception of the rule relied upon.

Plaintiff, in substance, testified: She is a resident of the City of Tulsa and resides at 3538 South Indianapolis. On July 7, 1956, at about 4 P.M. she went to the Safeway Store in question to buy a week’s supply of groceries. She drove to the store in a Chevrolet two-door Sedan. She parked near the store and entered the store and picked her groceries together with a carton of Pepsi-Cola containing six bottles which were placed in a store cart and wheeled to the checking counter where the groceries were checked and placed in a sack. The carton of Pepsi-Cola, however, was not placed in this sack. One of the employees of the store then carried the sack of groceries and the carton containing the Pepsi-Cola to plaintiff’s car, placed the sack of groceries in the front end of the car and the carton of Pepsi-Cola in the rear end of the car. She then drove home and parked her car in the parkway. She removed the sack containing the groceries to her kitchen but left the bottles containing the Pepsi-Cola in the rear end of the car. The day she purchased the groceries was a hot summer July day. After she removed the groceries from the car she prepared dinner for the family and after dinner washed the dishes. The carton of Pepsi-Cola during all this time remained in the car. After 7:30 P.M. of that day she re-entered the car and started driving to a summer camp to get one of her daughters. The carton of Pepsi-Cola remained in the car. While traveling over the streets of the City of Tulsa about four blocks east of a point where Thirty-sixth Street intersects with Harvard she heard bottles in the rear end of the car rattling. When she arrived at a red light at the intersection she stopped and looked back and saw that the container had tipped over and one bottle was lying on the floor of the car. She reached back to pick up the bottle with the intention *>f *442 placing it back into the carton but as she did so the bottle exploded in her hands. She then went to a nearby drug store and received first aid treatment. She was thereafter taken to a hospital where she received medical treatment and a minor operation. The explosion severed the tendon in her right thumb resulting in permanent loss of use of the thumb and otherwise damaging her hand.

Mr. Bales, manager of the Safeway Store, in his testimony described in detail the construction of the building and its dimensions. It was air conditioned and its floor was constructed of tile. The witness further testified that it was the custom of the Safeway Store to order cartons of Pepsi-Cola from defendant, who was the bottler and distributor of the beverage. The store received Pepsi-Cola twice a week from the route salesman, in wooden cases containing four 6-bottle aluminum cartons which the route salesman placed in the store room. That the store was selling about 200 cases a week. The cartons were removed from the cases and transferred on a truck by the stock boy to the display counter in the salesroom of the store and stacked seven cases high on the display counter. Customers of the store desiring to purchase Pepsi-Cola picked one of the cartons from this stack and thereafter conveyed it to their homes. The witness described in detail the manner in which the cartons containing the Pepsi-Cola were handled from the time it arrived at the store until it was passed on to the customer and described in detail all the persons who had in any manner handled the cartons while in the possession of the store.

Defendant offered evidence tending to rebut the alleged negligence arising out of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. He offered testimony that before the beverage was placed in the bottles the bottles were traced from the factory up until the time they reached his hands. Numerous and various tests were made to determine whether the bottles had been properly made and manufactured. Those that were proved defective were cast aside and those which proved to be perfect were retained; that the cartons reached the Safeway Store in good condition; that they were delivered to the store in the manner as testified to by the manager of the store.

This, in substance, constitutes the evidence in the case. Plaintiff contends that it is sufficient to make out a prima facie case of negligence against defendant and sufficient to take the case to the jury on such issue and that the trial court therefore erred in directing the jury to render a verdict in favor of defendant. We do not agree. In Soter v. Griesedieck Western Brewery Co., 200 Okl. 302, 193 P.2d 575, 576, 4 A.L.R.2d 458, we held:

“The doctrine of ‘res ipsa loquitur’ is inapplicable to the bursting of a bottle of beer after it has passed from the bottler into the hands of third parties, where the record is silent as to how the beer is handled after it leaves the possession of the bottler.”

In that case it appears that a retailer in beer purchased a case of beer from defendant, who was a bottler and distributor of beer. As he opened the case and attempted to take out several bottles one of the bottles exploded in his hand. He thereafter brought an action in damages against the bottler and distributor of the beer to recover damages for the injury so sustained.

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

Related

Wheeler v. Koch Gathering Systems, Inc.
131 F.3d 898 (Tenth Circuit, 1997)
Farris v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc
107 F.3d 20 (Tenth Circuit, 1997)
Green v. Safeway Stores, Inc.
1975 OK 59 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1975)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1958 OK 159, 327 P.2d 440, 1958 Okla. LEXIS 509, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/michel-v-branham-okla-1958.