Smith v. Denholm & McKay Co.

192 N.E. 631, 288 Mass. 234, 1934 Mass. LEXIS 1262
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedOctober 25, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 192 N.E. 631 (Smith v. Denholm & McKay Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Denholm & McKay Co., 192 N.E. 631, 288 Mass. 234, 1934 Mass. LEXIS 1262 (Mass. 1934).

Opinion

Pierce, J.

This is an action of contract or tort, brought to recover damages for injuries arising from the use of a proprietary article called “Koremlu,” manufactured by a corporation other than the defendant company, which the plaintiff purchased in the defendant’s store in Worcester. The plaintiff’s original declaration was in two counts, one in contract and one in tort. The judge allowed a motion by the plaintiff to amend the declaration by filing a substituted declaration consisting of four counts in contract and one count, the fifth, in tort. The defendant saved exceptions to the allowance of the.plaintiff’s motion to amend the declaration in so far as it concerned the fourth count, on the ground that this count set out more than one cause of action which arose on different contracts. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 231, § 7, Fourth. The trial proceeded on the five counts of the amended declaration. At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence she elected to rely on the contract counts and waived the fifth count in tort. It is agreed that the [237]*237pleadings, the judge’s “Findings of Fact,” and Exhibits “2” and “9” (to which there is reference in the “Findings of Fact”) may be referred to and made part of the bill of exceptions.

Exhibit “2” is a folded printed circular, which on the outside page bears the following legend: “Koremlu Method Trade Mark registered in U. S. and Canada Guaranteed to Devitalize Superfluous Hair ROOTS on Face or Any Part of Body. KOREMLU, INC. 11 West 42nd Street, N. Y. C.” The inside pages of this circular contain a laudatory advertisement of “Koremlu Cream” with directions for its use. Exhibit “9” is a letter purporting to be notice of a breach of express warranty, given the defendant in compliance with G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 106, § 38. It reads as follows: “March 18, 1931 Denholm & McKay Company, Main Street, Worcester, Mass. Gentlemen: I represent Miss Mildred A. Smith, who, on or about October 1930 purchased at your store some Koremlu cream which she applied according to directions and as a result thereof she has become ill and suffered severe injury about her head, and body and is now confined to the Massachusetts General Hospital of Boston. I have been instructed to commence suit in the matter and am doing so this day, but shall be pleased to confer with you or your representative at your convenience relative to the question of liability and damage. Very truly yours, [signed] John J. Hayes William E. Cunningham.” The defendant’s answer to that part of the amended declaration upon which the plaintiff elected to rely is a general denial and a charge of failure on the part of the plaintiff to give the defendant notice of the alleged breaches of warranty as required by G. L. (Ter. Ed.) e. 106, § 38. It is stated that the bill of exceptions contains “All the evidence necessary- to pass upon the matters raised by the exceptions.”

The case was heard by a judge in the Superior Court without a jury. At the conclusion of the evidence he denied the defendant’s motions for a finding for the defendant on counts one, two, three and four. He made a general finding for the plaintiff on the contract counts and assessed damages at $8,500. The case comes before this court on the excep[238]*238tians of the defendant to the refusal of the judge to grant its motions, to his refusal to reject certain evidence and to give requested rulings of law, and to the “filing of a general finding.”

The plaintiff testified, and the judge found, as follows: The plaintiff is a teacher in the public schools. On July 5, 1930, she purchased at the defendant’s store a jar of “Zip,” which is a preparation applied externally for the removal of hair. The saleswoman at that time suggested to the plaintiff that she buy a jar of “Koremlu Cream,” stating “it was less painful, safe and harmless to use,” and gave her a circular (Exhibit 2). On July 11, 1930, the plaintiff returned to the defendant’s store and the same saleswoman made substantially the same statement to her as she had made on July 5, 1930. There is no evidence that on July 11, 1930, a similar circular was given to the plaintiff or that there was one to give her. Following the statements thus made, the plaintiff then purchased a jar of “Koremlu Cream,” paying therefor. She began to use the cream the last of September, 1930, applying it to her face according to directions. On November 19, 1930, she bought of the defendant a second $10 jar of “Koremlu Cream” through a friend, who had it charged to the plaintiff’s account at her direction. On January 31, 1931, she purchased of the defendant a third $10 jar of “Koremlu Cream,” ordering it by mail. At the time of the second and third purchases no affirmations of fact or promises were made by any agent or servant of the defendant.

The plaintiff became ill the last of November, 1930, gave up her work at Christmas time, and was totally incapacitated until September, 1931. After the last of November, 1930, she grew steadily worse, consulting several doctors in the meantime, and on February 11, 1931, was admitted to a hospital in Boston where she remained until May 13, 1931. At the hospital her trouble was diagnosed as peripheral neuritis from thallium poisoning. An analysis of five jars of “Koremlu Cream” showed a varying content of thallium acetate running from two and eighty-seven hundredths per cent to ten and eleven [239]*239hundredths per cent, the highest content being found in the jar purchased by the plaintiff on January 31, 1931. The evidence warranted a finding that thallium is a dangerous poison, that one per cent may cause injury, and that "it attacks the motor fibre of the nerve causing a 'selective type of paralysis. ’ ” There was evidence offered by medical experts for the defendant that the use of a three-ounce jar of the cream containing between five and ten per cent of thallium every two or three months or so until three jars were used might affect the system of a normal person but not to the extent found in the plaintiff, the effect in her case being accentuated because of abnormal endocrine glands. The plaintiff first knew that "Koremlu Cream” caused her condition on February 26, 1931, while she was in the hospital. She got in touch with her attorneys with the result that the notice (Exhibit 9, supra) was sent on March 18, 1931, and received by the defendant on March 19, 1931. The judge found and ruled that “the defendant’s saleswoman made affirmations of fact amounting to an express warranty and that plaintiff was induced to buy because of same”; that the “defendant’s saleswoman had been instructed not to warrant goods sold by them”; and that “the notice given defendant by plaintiff’s attorneys on March 18, 1931 (Exhibit 9), though inaccurate as to date of purchase, is a sufficient notice and given within a reasonable time under the existing conditions or circumstances.”

The issues argued by the defendant are, in brief: (1) The refusal of the judge to exclude count four; (2) the exception to the admission of the acts and words of the salesgirl as the basis of a warranty of the “Koremlu Cream” sold by the defendant to the plaintiff on dates subsequent; (3) that no sufficient notice of breach of warranty was given it; (4) that the defendant was not bound by the statements of its agents; (5) that the plaintiff could not recover on a breach of warranty if the injury occurred through the abnormalities of the plaintiff which were unknown to the defendant; and (6) that there was no warranty express or implied in connection with the sales in November, 1930, and in January, 1931.

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Bluebook (online)
192 N.E. 631, 288 Mass. 234, 1934 Mass. LEXIS 1262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-denholm-mckay-co-mass-1934.