Riggs v. Standard Oil Co.

• Decision Date: 22 April 1904
• Parties: RIGGS v. STANDARD OIL CO. (two cases).
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

130 F. 199

RIGGS v. STANDARD OIL CO. (two cases).

United States Circuit Court, D. Minnesota.

April 22, 1904

L. E Utley, William A. Kerr, and E. F. Waite, for plaintiff.

Stringer & Seymour and Alfred D. Eddy, for defendant.

LOCHREN District Judge (orally).

The action that is brought by Mrs. Anna B. Riggs is to recover from the Standard Oil Company damages for the injuries which she sustained by reason of an explosion of oil used by her to light a fire on the 18th of June, 1903, upon the claim that the oil was a mixture of kerosene and gasoline, although purchased by her husband as kerosene oil; and that under the Minnesota statute, which prescribes a test for kerosene, and forbids the sale of any oil which will not stand that test of not burning at any point below 120 degrees Fahrenheit, the Standard Oil Company was guilty of negligence in selling such dangerous oil, and responsible for the very grievous injuries which she sustained by reason of being burned.

It is evidence that the injuries are very severe, and, if there is evidence to show that the Standard Oil Company is responsible for these injuries, then it certainly ought to be required to make compensation. On the other hand, if the evidence fails to establish such claim, and if there is no evidence from which the jury can rightfully find responsibility on the part of the Standard Oil Company, then it would be unjust and improper to permit a verdict against the defendant notwithstanding the severity of the injury which the plaintiff has sustained.

The case on the part of the husband depends upon that of the wife: the injury which he has sustained being by reason for her injuries.

Counsel for defendant made a motion at the close of the plaintiff's evidence that the jury be instructed to return a verdict for defendant on the ground that there was no evidence which would support a verdict on behalf of the plaintiff. It is claimed, in the first place, that there was no contractual relation between the plaintiff and the defendant; that the plaintiff did not buy oil of the defendant, and that, therefore, the defendant is not responsible for what somebody else sold. Ordinarily, that is true; but it is not true where a party puts upon the market an article which is dangerous, under the name of an article which is not dangerous, whereby a third party may be deceived in purchasing it, although that third person does not buy directly of the one who puts it upon the market. This is a doctrine which is applicable in the case where a harmful drug is sold under the name of a drug that is innocuous, it being really poisonous and dangerous; and where it is put up in the form in which it is sold, not by the druggist, but by the manufacturer. In that case the person who puts it upon the market in that form is liable to any person who may be injured by the use of it in the manner in which it is expected to be used. In this case the evidence shows without contradiction that the oil that was furnished by the defendant, the Standard Oil Company, at Monticello, during the spring and early part of the summer of 1903, and until past the time of the sale of this oil, consisted of three car tanks of oil, which had been inspected by the deputy inspector of oils, and found to stand the test-- one car being of such a quality that the flashing point was 121 degrees, another car 123, and the third, I think, 125 degrees; at any rate it was all above 120 degrees. There is also testimony without contradiction that kerosene from these cars was transferred by pumping the same into the storage tanks of the Standard Oil Company at Monticello, and that the Kerosene which was sold in that village and in the surrounding villages by Mr. Crozier from some time in the early spring until the time of this accident was taken from these storage tanks, and was part of the oil that came out of these three cars, the quality of which has been shown by uncontroverted evidence to be above the required standard. The evidence shows that Mr. Crozier furnished oil to Mealey &amp Co., and it is claimed here by defendant that it is not liable, for the reason that, even if there were any fault in the oil which was furnished to Mealey & Co. and the plaintiff, or if there was any mixing of the oils, it must have been done by the drivers employed by Mr. Crozier, who were not employees of the Standard Oil Company. Cases have been cited where it was held that the owner of a property or business is not responsible for the acts of the servants of an independent contractor that he may employ about his property or business. That is true. I think there is no doubt but that is the universal rule; but it does not strike me that the evidence as to Mr. Crozier makes a case of that nature. I think he was not in the position of an independent contractor. He was none the less the agent and servant of the Standard Oil Company because he was serving for a commission. The details of that contract are not explained, but it appears that his compensation depended upon the amount of oil that he disposed of. That would make him no less an agent or servant than if he were employed under a fixed salary; and the fact that he employed others to do the work which he had engaged to do for this commission would make the acts no less the acts of his principal than if he had done them himself, he not being an independent contractor, but simply an agent or servant himself. If he employed a co-servant to carry the oil or drive a tank wagon, I think it would be the same as if he had done it himself, and that it also would be an act of the defendant, or an act which would make the defendant responsible in case there was any negligence in performing it. There is not any direct evidence whatever of any mixing of oil by these teamsters. There is not any evidence from which it might be inferred that there was any mixing of oil by the teamsters, other than the evidence of Dr. Drew as to tests made by him upon the oil which was brought to him by Mr. Utley in a bottle. The testimony of the drivers themselves is to the effect that the oil which they delivered to Mealey & Co. was kerosene oil from this storage tank, which had already been tested by the deputy...