Ober v. Associated Coca-Cola Bottling Co., COCA-COLA

• Decision Date: 27 March 1986
• Docket Number: COCA-COLA
• Citation: 118 A.D.2d 1016,500 N.Y.S.2d 389
• Parties: Carl J. OBER et al., Respondents, v. ASSOCIATEDBOTTLING COMPANY, INC., Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 389

500 N.Y.S.2d 389

118 A.D.2d 1016

Carl J. OBER et al., Respondents, v. ASSOCIATED COCA-COLA BOTTLING COMPANY, INC., Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division,

Third Department.

March 27, 1986.

Ainsworth, Sullivan, Tracy & Knauf (Joseph C. Teresi, of counsel), Albany, for appellant.

McClung, Peters, Simon & Arensberg (Stephen J. Arlington, of counsel), Albany, for respondents.

Before KANE, J.P., and MAIN, WEISS, MIKOLL and YESAWICH, JJ.

YESAWICH, Justice.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court in favor of plaintiffs, entered May 8, 1985 in Albany County, upon a verdict rendered at Trial Term (Conway, J.).

Defendant maintains that the jury verdict in favor of plaintiffs, Carl and Elizabeth Ober, in the amounts of $27,500 and $15,000, respectively, are excessive to such an extent as to indicate that they are the product of sympathy. The Obers, a married couple with three children, are both blind. A sheltered workshop for the blind located in the City of Albany employs Mr. Ober. It was there, during his lunchtime on Friday, June 18, 1985, that he drank from a contaminated bottle of defendant's soda purchased from defendant's vending machine. Immediately, Mr. Ober became nauseated and was taken to a hospital where he was seen by a doctor, and after several hours was sent home. The nausea, stomach cramps and diarrhea continued over the weekend, prompting Mr. Ober to visit his personal physician on Monday, following which medication was prescribed.

While this remedied his physical discomfort, Mr. Ober's emotional trauma had just begun. The incident caused him to lose confidence in his surroundings, as evidenced by his reluctance, to the dismay of his wife, to even eat food prepared at home. Mr. Ober withdrew from active participation in the management of the home and became antisocial. His wife related that his lack of cooperation and irritability greatly strained their marriage, which, because of their mutual handicaps, was based on a high degree of interdependence and mutual assistance. Recognizing and troubled by this change, for it affected his marriage, parenting and sociability, Mr. Ober sought psychiatric help.

A psychiatric evaluation showed that Mr. Ober had the greatest sense of autonomy of anyone the psychiatrist had ever treated, but had suffered a "loss of feeling of being able to control his environment and things around him" as a result of the misfortune with the contaminated soda. According to the psychiatrist, a...