Queen v. Gagliola
| Decision Date | 19 January 1972 |
| Citation | 292 A.2d 890,162 Conn. 164 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | Evelyn QUEEN v. Nancy GAGLIOLA et al. |
William F. Gallagher, New Haven, with whom, on the brief, was George L. Eastman New Haven, for appellant (named defendant).
Andrew D. Sabetta, Derby, for appellee (plaintiff).
Before HOUSE, C.J., and THIM, RYAN, SHAPIRO and LOISELLE, JJ.
This is a personal injury action brought by the plaintiff in four counts against Nancy Gagliola, Angelo A. Gagliola and the Helene Curtis Industries, Inc. The first count alleged that the defendants Gagliola were engaged in the business of hair styling and that the plaintiff suffered injuries as a result of their negligence in giving her a permanent wave. In the second count it was alleged that the defendant Helene Curtis Industries, Inc., negligently sold a bottle of lotion to the defendants Gagliola which was used by them in the hair treatment administered to the plaintiff; that the defendant Helene Curtis Industries, Inc., failed to warn, by appropriate label or otherwise, of the dangerous propensities of the lotion and that its negligence was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries. The third count alleged breach of warranty by the defendant Helene Curtis Industries, Inc. The fourth count was for breach of implied warranty by the defendants Gagliola.
The defendants Gagliola and Helene Curtis Industries denied the essential allegations of the complaint and filed special defenses alleging that any injury to the pllaintiff was the sole result of the plaintiff's own individual allergic reaction and peculiar susceptibility to the permanent wave solution, and that the defendants had no knowledge or notice of such a condition and had no reason to foresee it. At the conclusion of the plaintiff's evidence the motion of the defendant Helene Curtis Industries for a directed verdict was granted. The action against the defendant Angelo A. Gagliola was withdrawn and the fourth count was dropped by the plaintiff. The jury returned a verdict against the defendant Nancy Gagliola on the first count. Her motion to set aside the verdict was denied and from the judgment rendered thereon she appealed to the Appellate Division of the Circuit Court, which affirmed the judgment. On the granting of certification, the named defendant appealed to this court.
The defendant's assignments of error are directed to the charge of the trial court. The plaintiff made the following claims of proof: On February 17, 1966, the plaintiff went to the Valley Academy of Beauty Culture in the city of Ansonia to have her hair styled in a permanent wave. The defendant Nancy Gagliola owned and operated the academy as a school, and, as part of the training program, students were permitted to give permanent waves to the public. On that day the plaintiff was given a hair wave known as the 'Elegante Permanent' for which she paid $8.50. On prior occasions the plaintiff had received similar hair waves and suffered no ill effects from them. The solution applied to the plaintiff's hair for the permanent wave was called 'Elegante Permanente d'Italia,' which was manufactured by Helene Curtis Industries and supplied by the manufacturer to the academy. Instructions for the giving of the permanent wave were printed on the box in which the solution was packaged and referred to more detailed directions known as Sue Cory instructions. These instructions were in the possession of the defendant. It was customary for students working at the academy to follow the instructions given to them by their instructor. The plaintiff asked that she be given the same kind of permanent wave she had the last time she was at the school. The waive was given to her by Sue Sayer, a high school student seventeen or eighteen years of age, and by another girl, not identified, of approximately the same age. The supervisor-teacher on duty at the time the plaintiff's hair was being treated did not supervise the students and was not present at any time while the students were actually treating the plaintiff's hair. The plaintiff's hair was saturated with the permanent lotion and the hair was wound on plastic curlers, each approximately one-quarter of an inch apart from the other. After the hair was set the timer was started, and about the time the timer went off, the plaintiff complained to Miss Sayer that her head was burning all over. The student checked her hair, told the plaintiff that it was not ready and reset the timer. Miss Sayer checked only one curl by unwinding it. This was the only 'test curl' which was made. The instructions for the application of the solution were not followed by Miss Sayer in applying the lotion to the plaintiff's hair. While at home latter that evening, the plaintiff noticed that her hair was short in the back and that she could see her scalp. The next morning when she combed her hair, she noticed that hair had fallen out, the hair line had receded, the front right side of her hair was gone and there was a bald spot on the left frontal part of her head. The plaintiff had burning, sores and blisters on her scalp and on the back of the neck, and her hair continued to break close to the scalp for a period of four months thereafter. As a result of her injury, she has a small permanent scar on the back of her neck one centimeter long and one centimeter wide. The injuries sustained by the plaintiff were, with reasonable probability, due to the permanent...
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