This is an action instituted by the plaintiff
against the defendant to recover damages for injuries
alleged to have been sustained from an explosion of gas from
a water heater which the plaintiff purchased from the
defendant.
The
plaintiff operated a filling station and cafe in Rockingham
N.C. He was burning liquid gas, purchased from Thomas
Liquid Gas Company, High Point, N.C., in a stove, a steam
table and coffee urn in his cafe. This gas was purchased in a
drum and poured into a tank in the ground. A compressor motor
was used to pump air into the tank, and as the liquid gas
mixed with the air it vaporized and generated a gas which
flowed into the burners.
On 9
February, 1946, the plaintiff testified, he went to the
Charlotte Salvage Company, in Charlotte, N.C., the place of
business of the defendant E. Isadore Sinkoe, for the purpose
of purchasing a water heater. He asked Mr. Sinkoe if he had
gas water heaters for use with liquid gas. Mr. Sinkoe
informed him he did and showed the plaintiff some water
heaters which were still in their crates. He then told Mr
Sinkoe he wanted one that used Thomas' liquid gas, from
High Point, N.C.; and that Mr. Sinkoe replied
"That is what you want, we furnish them heaters."
The plaintiff purchased one of the heaters.
According
to the evidence, the heater was received by the plaintiff on
the 1st or 2nd of March, 1946, and installed by him in the
shower room of his service station. The heater was used from
the 1st or 2nd of March until 6 March. About 8:15 p.m., on 6
March, 1946, the plaintiff sat down in the shower room to
smoke a cigarette; when he struck a match to light the
cigarette, there was a terrific explosion. He was seriously
and permanently injured. The gas applicances in the cafe were
working properly on the day of the explosion.
After
the plaintiff returned from the hospital, his attention was
called to a label on the water heater which he had purchased
from the defendant. The label was located near the bottom of
the heater, giving model, serial number, etc., and it was
stated thereon that it was "equipped for use with MFRD
gas," and also contained in very small lettering the
following statement: "Warning: This heater is not to be
used with bottled gas, butane or other liquified petroleum
gases." The plaintiff testified he had not noticed this
label, but had taken Mr. Sinkoe's word that it was the
right heater. He further testified as follows: "When I
went into the shower room on the night of the explosion I did
not notice whether the pilot light was burning. The room
could be ventilated by raising the window. You can smell the
gas when you pour it in the ground tank, but you could not
smell it in the building. If we had found that the pilot
light had gone out we would raise the window. I used the
heater which I bought from Mr. Sinkoe for about six days, and
during that time I had to light it up once or twice. When the
pilot light would cut off the gas would cut off; if there is
no gas coming up the line the pilot light goes out. The pilot
light works on a little valve or lever which you have to turn
on in order to let gas in to light the pilot light after it
has gone out. When the pilot light would go out I would have
to turn the valve or lever to let gas come in before I could
light the pilot light. I had never had any experience with
one of these heaters before."
Mr
Edgar B. Terry was tendered by plaintiff as an expert, and
the Court found him to be such in the installation and repair
of gas heaters and as a dealer in liquid gas. Mr. Terry
testified: "I examined this water heater immediately
after the explosion. It had a burner on it for manufactured
gas and a thermostat for manufactured gas. The difference
between the burner designed to burn natural or manufactured
gas and one designed to burn liquid or propane gas is that
the one that is manufactured to burn manufactured gas has a
metal disk in the thermostat that controls the flow of gas.
On the other hand, the disk in a burner designed to burn
liquid gas is made of a hard bakelite, similar to rubber. * *
* The one for liquid gas with a composition disk, or
diaphragm, would work on the same principle as
the manufactured gas, but the reason that you use a disk with
the composition on it, on the propane gas, as we say, is due
to the fact it has no impurities in it to get in there and
seal that, such as the manufactured gas has. Any gas gotten
from oil has impurities taken out. * * * You cannot use
liquid gas with the thermostat with the metal disk for the
reason that when you do so it does away with the safety
feature on the tank, due to the fact that the thermostat
can't properly close itself and let(s) gas continue to
come in when it should not. If liquid gas were used with
the metal disk it would permit the gas to escape from the
thermostat into the burner itself or into the pilot light
which is governed by the thermostat. If a proper type of tank
is used gas would not continue to come out when the pilot
light goes out. If you put the liquid gas in a tank designed
with the steel seal in the thermostat there is a possibility
that the gas would escape or could seep by; that is the
reason that liquid petroleum gas tanks use a little rubber
seal to seal it. * * * I don't know whether there was
anything wrong with the regulator when I saw it before the
explosion or not. It had a regulator on it, you have a spring
tension in that regulator that would adjust itself. You have
a spring tension in that diaphragm that would adjust itself
to a certain extent. If the regulator put too much pressure
on it, you would not have anything burning then and the gas
would escape. I saw the compressor that was on there when
they were using Thomas' gas. He had to have a compressor.
* * * If the regulator put on too much pressure it would blow
gas right through the machine but you wouldn't have
anything burning then. Then the gas would escape, but if Mr.
Dalrymple had had the proper tank his gas would not have
escaped since it would have been sealed off. * * * Before I
considered myself qualified to connect one of these heaters,
or service it, I was bound by certain instructions and rules
and studied and passed an examination. I wouldn't have
put one in unless I had had the benefit of those
instructions, rules and...
