Stephens v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of St. Louis

• Decision Date: 16 November 1948
• Docket Number: 27430
• Parties: STEPHENS v. COCA-COLA BOTTLING CO. OF ST. LOUIS
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

215 S.W.2d 50

STEPHENS
v.
COCA-COLA BOTTLING CO. OF ST. LOUIS

No. 27430

Court of Appeals of Missouri, St. Louis

November 16, 1948

'Not to be reported in State Reports.'

Lashly, Lashly, Miller & Clifford, of St. Louis, for appellant.

Hay & Flanagan, and Vincent S. Moody, all of St. Louis, for respondent.

OPINION

McCULLEN [215 S.W.2d 51]

This is an action for damages brought by Kenneth Stephens, as plaintiff, against Coco-Cola Bottling Company of St. Louis, as defendant, for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff as the result of negligence of defendant. A trial before the court and a jury resulted in a verdict for defendant. In due time plaintiff filed a motion for a new trial, which [215 S.W.2d 52] was sustained by the court. From the order granting a new trial defendant appealed.

Plaintiff's petition alleged that on August 21, 1937, he was employed as a clerk at the Tarzian Market in the City of St. Louis and that while performing the duties of his employment he was handling a bottle of coco-cola which had shortly prior thereto been bottled by defendant for sale to and use by the public, and sold delivered to the owner of said market; that said bottle exploded as a direct and proximate result of the negligence of defendant, and that pieces of glass therefrom, driven by the violence of the explosion, flew and struck plaintiff's left hand and wrist with great force, inflicting on plaintiff painful and permanent injuries; that defendant manufactured the contents of said bottle and sealed said bottle at its plant in the City of St. Louis, and at all times had complete and exclusive control thereof and its contents until defendant sold and delivered the same to the owner of said market as a dealer for the purpose of resale to his customers; that said bottle of coca-cola was properly and carefully handled by the owner of said market and his employees, and by plaintiff, and all persons into whose hands it came after leaving the possession of defendant; that said coca-cola was charged with carbon dioxide or carbonic acid gas which exerts an exploding pressure upon the bottle in which it is confined; that the bursting of said bottle of coca-cola would not have occurred if due care had been used by defendant and that all facts and circumstances concerning the manufacture of said bottle of coca-cola were peculiarly and exclusively within the knowledge of defendant and not within the knowledge of plaintiff.

Plaintiff's petition then set forth the nature and extent of his injuries, and prayed damages in the sum of $ 3000.

The answer of defendant was a general denial and a plea that whatever injuries, if any, plaintiff received were due to his own negligence and carelessness.

At the trial it was stipulated by counsel for the parties that defendant bottled the bottle of coca-cola that exploded and caused the injuries to plaintiff and delivered the same to the Tarzian Market in St. Louis in a case with twenty-three other bottles.

Plaintiff testified that on August 21, 1937, he was employed by the Tarzian Market as a grocery clerk and that part of his duties were to keep an icebox, also called cooler, located at the front of the store, filled with coca-cola and other bottled beverages; that such bottles of beverage were stacked up in a wareroom at the back of the store; that on the date in question he was refilling the icebox and had a bucket of bottled beverages standing on the floor; that he had taken the bottles of beverage from various cases in the wareroom, standing them up in the bucket, and had carried the bucket out to the icebox where he placed it on the floor next to the icebox; that while he was standing there, about two feet away from the box, a coca-cola bottle in the bucket exploded and a piece of glass struck him on the left wrist and made a gash on his wrist; that all the other bottles in the bucket were intact -- only one bottle was broken, and that was the coca-cola bottle; that there were ten or fifteen bottles in the bucket at the time; that he had placed them in the bucket two at a time, and then picked up the bucket and carried it to the icebox; that he did not hit it against anything; did not drop it; handled the bottles and set them upright in the bucket, each bottle standing upright on its own bottom, and that he did not pile them one on top of the other; that the bottle which exploded had just been standing in the bucket while he put the others in the cooler; that he had not picked it up, had not struck it nor dropped it, nor disturbed it in any way; that it just flew up on its own accord; that it was hot weather at the time and he kept the cooler filled with bottles.

Plaintiff further testified that after defendant placed the coca-cola cases in the back room, no one touched them until he got bottles from the cases to put in the cooler, and that on the morning in question he handled all the bottles and the bucket carefully and did not bump any of the bottles or the bucket.

Floyd Hastings testified for plaintiff that he was a clerk at the Tarzian store and on [215 S.W.2d 53] the morning in question was taking butter out of the display refrigerator where meats, butter and like products were kept; that he had just got some butter and turned around when the explosion started and he saw...