Griffin v. Planters Chemical Corporation, Civ. A. No. 68-170
| Decision Date | 30 July 1969 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 68-170,68-171. |
| Citation | 302 F. Supp. 937 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of South Carolina |
| Parties | Anne Page GRIFFIN, Temporary Administratrix of the Estate of Edward V. Griffin, Jr., Plaintiff, v. PLANTERS CHEMICAL CORPORATION, Defendant. Anne Page GRIFFIN, Temporary Administratrix of the Estate of Edward V. Griffin, Jr., Plaintiff, v. PLANTERS CHEMICAL CORPORATION, Defendant. |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
C. Weston Houck, of Willcox, Hardee, Houck, Palmer & O'Farrell, Florence, S. C., for plaintiff.
C. Dexter Powers, of Wright, Scott, Blackwell & Powers, Florence, S. C., for defendant.
These actions seek recovery (1) for injuries allegedly suffered by the deceased, and kept alive by the survival statute1 and (2) for the wrongful death of deceased.2 They were consolidated for trial and tried before the court without a jury. Plaintiff complains of negligence, carelessness and willfulness on the part of defendant as the proximate cause of the (1) pain and suffering to, and (2) death of, plaintiff's intestate, asks actual and punitive damages. Defendant, in each case pleads a general denial by answer. At the trial defendant moved to interpose the pleas of sole negligence/willfulness on the part of the intestate and contributory negligence/willfulness on his part, as a bar to recovery. The court allowed the amendments and those defenses are considered by the court. After hearing the testimony and viewing the exhibits the court asked for proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, scheduled and heard oral arguments thereon and took the case under advisement. Now, under provisions of Rule 523, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the court publishes its
1. Plaintiff's intestate was a twenty-eight (28) year old manager of Lakeview Farm Supply Company, Lake View, South Carolina, a company which purchased from various suppliers and resold to farmers in the area certain insecticides, fertilizers and similar products. He personally participated in the sale of these products to various farmers and generally worked in and around the premises of the business, consisting of an office building and two other buildings in which were stored insecticides and fertilizers. Plaintiff graduated from North Carolina State College in Raleigh, North Carolina, in June 1959 with a B.S. degree in forestry. He worked for a short time following his graduation in a field related to his forestry background, and with Planters National Bank in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He and his family moved to Lake View, South Carolina, in August 1961. At the time of his death his salary was approximately Seven Thousand ($7,000.00) Dollars per year. He and Anne Page Griffin were married in Lake View, South Carolina, on June 28, 1958. Prior to the death of plaintiff's intestate, two children were born of said union. Hunter Lee Griffin, a son, was born on September 17, 1959, and Catherine Page Griffin, a daughter, was born on July 12, 1962. Following the death of plaintiff's intestate, a third child and another son, Edward Vance Griffin, III, was born on October 21, 1964. All three said children survive and reside with their mother, the plaintiff, in Lake View.
2. Defendant is and has been since 1949 a formulator and distributor of 1 percent parathion dust, and Lake View Farm Supply Company was one of its customers. On May 18, 1964, there was located in the pesticide warehouse of Lake View Farm Supply Company a number of 25-pound bags of 1 percent parathion dust bearing the label of the defendant. This product had been sold by the defendant to Lake View Farm Supply Company and placed in the latter's warehouse. While plaintiff's intestate was in the pesticide warehouse of Lake View Farm Supply Company on the afternoon of May 18, 1964, one of the defendant's said 25-pound bags of 1 percent parathion dust burst, and plaintiff's intestate was exposed to its contents. It is difficult to tell the amount of exposure that plaintiff's intestate received, but photographs introduced into evidence and showing the broken bag clearly indicate that between one-third to one-half of the 25-pound bag of 1 percent parathion dust involved had been spilled therefrom.
3. In 1949 the defendant obtained approval of its label for 1 percent parathion dust from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. No change was shown to have been made in the contents of said label between the time of its approval in 1949 and the date of the instant accident in 1964. Defendant conducts no tests to determine the possible effects of 1 percent parathion dust on a human body, and has never conducted any such tests. Nor has defendant ever had a toxicologist in its employ or engaged anyone for the purpose of gathering and distributing to its customers available data and case histories regarding persons exposed to 1 percent parathion dust prior to May 18, 1964. Apparently the defendant relies completely on the approval of its label by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in fulfilling its obligation to warn the general public concerning 1 percent parathion dust. At the time of this exposure, plaintiff's intestate was dressed in a short-sleeve, open-collar shirt and slacks.
4. On May 18, 1964, plaintiff's intestate was engaged in the afternoon in taking stock in the insecticide building, getting ready for the season's cotton poisoning; his mother-in-law left the office at about 4:30 P.M. He was seen by an employee, who was working in the fertilizer warehouse, going from the office to the insecticide warehouse three times, and on one occasion was seen going to the office from the insecticide building with something in his hands. He then came into the fertilizer warehouse to deliver a check for a loan to an employee. When seen coming out of the office he was brushing himself off. While delivering the check to the employee, Lonnie McNeil, he had a conversation with another employee, James Kelly, who was working with McNeil. Kelly saw no dust on Griffin's clothes, but did see a small damp spot on his undershirt during the course of a conversation. Sometime during the late afternoon, Duchray Spivey, an employee who was second to Griffin, came into the office and saw Griffin talking to someone, but he said nothing about his mishap. About 6:00 P.M. when the employees returned to the premises, the doors were locked. Griffin arrived home around 6:00 P.M. and after greeting his wife, he watered some flowers in the yard. He was called to supper and while sitting at the supper table became ill. His wife helped him to the living room where he lay down, and began calling a doctor and an ambulance. The ambulance arrived at the Griffin home at 6:30 to 6:45 P.M. Griffin was then lying down and having trouble breathing. He was immediately taken to the Mullins Hospital about twelve miles away.
5. Dr. Daniel Pace met them at the Mullins Hospital, where he found Griffin in a very cyanotic state. He administered atropine, a recognized antidote for parathion poisoning, but he expired in about an hour. An autopsy was performed by Dr. Edward McKee, professor of pathology at the South Carolina Medical College in Charleston. He found no evidence of morphological causes of death or organic disease. He testified that the toxicological evaluation was not ideal because of prior embalment and the U. S. Public Health Service in Atlanta was unable to reach any conclusion after examination of specimens sent it, because the material was stated not to be ideal.
6. Plaintiff introduced testimony that the insecticide warehouse remained locked until the following morning when Joe H. Easler of the Royster Company in Florence and Duchray Spivey entered it. They found a bag of 1 percent parathion dust marketed by the defendant lying on the floor beside a stack of defendant's bags. This bag was broken. Photographs were taken then and the products of three or more companies selling insecticides can be seen. Also the bags of parathion dust marketed by defendant can be seen to carry the labels required by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, 7 U.S. C.A. Section 135 et seq. The label from the broken bag was introduced in evidence.
7. Also introduced was the testimony of Dr. Mitchell R. Zavon, Professor of Industrial Medicine, University of Cincinnati Medical School and Assistant Health Officer of the City of Cincinnati. He testified that parathion was an organo-phosphorous insecticide developed in Germany and introduced in the United States in 1948; that it was discovered to be suitable as an agricultural chemical and had been extensively so used since 1948. He further testified that what constitutes a lethal dose of parathion to a human varies considerably as does the dose required to cause symptoms in the human. Although he indicated that parathion may be lethal to the human, Dr. Zavon did not suggest that it was not an effective insecticide for the uses for which it is intended nor did he suggest by inference or otherwise that any nonpoisonous or less lethal substitute was available. In fact, he indicated that he had on occasion recommended that some of the safety precautions required to be on the labelling of parathion by the regulations promulgated by the Secretary of Agriculture not be observed by the users of parathion dust.
8. Dr. Louis H. Senn, South Carolina State Entomologist, testified that, in 1964, there were seventeen (17) companies marketing 1 percent parathion dust in South Carolina. He further testified that under the South Carolina Economic Poisons Act, Section 3-151 et seq., of the 1962 South Carolina Code of Laws the state has licensed those products registered with the U. S. Department of Agriculture under the regulations promulgated by the Secretary of Agriculture and has set up no other or different regulations for this state.
9. The testimony of plaintiff's witnesses, his widow, Duchray Spivey, and two other...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Kirschner v. Process Design Associates, Inc.
... ... DESIGN ASSOCIATES, INC., an Illinois Corporation, Defendant, ... General Accident Insurance ... face, eyes, and upper body and causing chemical burn injuries. In September 1988, plaintiffs 1 ... ...
-
Riordan v. WJ Bremer, Inc., Civ. A. No. 478-88 to 478-90.
...to the job site. The applicable substantive law is that of South Carolina where the injury occurred. Griffin v. Planters Chemical Corporation, 302 F.Supp. 937, 943 (D., S.C.). The transfer to South Carolina will work no real inconvenience to witnesses or the parties.7 Hardeeville is only 75......