Stokely-Van Camp, Inc. v. Ferguson

• Decision Date: 13 August 1959
• Docket Number: 8 Div. 914,STOKELY-VAN
• Parties: CAMP, INC. v. Etsel C. FERGUSON.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 356

122 So.2d 356

271 Ala. 120

STOKELY-VAN CAMP, INC. v. Etsel C. FERGUSON.

8 Div. 914.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Aug. 13, 1959.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 18, 1960.

J. A. Lee, Scottsboro, for appellant.

Andy Hamlet, Jr., W. Loy Campbell and H. R. Campbell, Scottsboro, for appellee.

LIVINGSTON, Chief Justice.

This action is in tort for personal injuries. The complaint contained one count to which demurrers were overruled, and charged that the deferndant was negligent in the preparation of its canned goods, i. e., pork and beans, which plaintiff purchased from an intermediate dealer, and which he ate shortly thereafter and became violently ill. There was a verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $4500. The appellant's motion for a new trial was overruled, and it appealed.

This court has considered numerous cases touching the duty of care required of manufacturers of food products put up in packages or bottles to be sold intact, and their liability to the ultimate consumer for negligence in putting such products on the market in a condition unfit for human consumption, or dangerous to health because of the presence of foreign matter. Reichert Milling Co. v. George, 230 Ala. 3, 162 So. 393; Try-Me Beverage Co. v. Harris, 217 Ala. 302, 116 So. 147; Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Crook, 222 Ala. 369, 132 So. 898; Collins Baking Co. v. Savage, 227 Ala. 408, 150 So. 336; Birmingham Chero-Cola Bottling Co. v. Clark, 205 Ala. 678, 89 So. 64, 17 A.L.R. 667; Whistle Bottling Co. v. Searson, 207 Ala. 387, 92 So. 657; Jefferson Dairy Co. v. Williams, 215 Ala. 559, 112 So. 125; Kirkland v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 233 Ala. 404, 171 So. 735.

The appellant insists on several grounds of demurrer interposed to the complaint. In pertinent part, the complaint is as follows:

'The plaintiff, Etsel C. Ferguson, claims of the defendant, Stokely-Van Camp, a Corporation, the sum of Fifteen Thousand ($15,000.00) Dollars as damages for this that on, to-wit, January 23, 1956 and during the month of January, 1956, the Defendant was engaged in the preparation, sale, distribution and canning of beans and other food stuff for the purpose of human consumption and that in the course of its business the Defendant distributed or sold case lots of Van Camp's Pork and Beans in sealed containers, which were delivered, or caused to be delivered, and sold to Claud Sartin, a merchant doing business as Claude Sartin Grocery Store in Jackson County, Alabama. And the plaintiff avers that on, to-wit, the 23rd of January, 1956 between the hours of twelve and six o'clock P.M. he purchased a can of said Van Camp's Pork and Beans in the said Claude Sartin Grocery Store near Stevenson, Jackson County, Alabama, and that said beans were consumed by him immediately thereafter being purchased. And the Plaintiff avers that said Pork and Beans were so negligently prepared by the Defendant in the operation of its business of mixing, preparing and sealing said Pork and Beans for human consumption, that the Pork and Beans sold to the Plaintiff as aforesaid, was spoiled, contaminated, impure, stale rotten or containing foreign matter to such an extent that as a result of eating said Pork and Beans, the Plaintiff became violently sick and ill and nauseated, suffered food poisoning and gastritis, * * *

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'And the Plaintiff avers that all of his said injuries were suffered as a proximate result of the Defendant's negligence in its preparation of the Pork and Beans sold by them and consumed by the Plaintiff, * * *'

As we understand it, it is argued by the appellant that the averment that the pork and beans were 'spoiled, contaminated, impure, stale, rotten or containing foreign matter to such an extent that as a result of eating said Pork and Beans, the Plaintiff became violently sick and ill,' etc., contains disjunctive alternate averments, and are no better than the weakest alternative, and that the averment that the pork and beans were spoiled, contaminated, impure, stale, rotten or containing foreign matter to such an extent that as a result of eating said pork and beans the plaintiff became violently sick and ill, etc., is a mere conclusion of the pleader.

There is no merit in this insistence. The averment that the pork and beans were spoiled is not a mere conclusion of the pleader, neither is the averment that they were contaminated, impure, stale, rotten or containing foreign matter a mere conclusion of the pleader.

In every cause of action grounded solely on negligence, there are three essential elements to a right of recovery: First, a duty owing from defendant to the plaintiff; second, a breach of that duty; and third, an injury to the plaintiff in consequence of that breach. Tennessee Coal, Iron & R. Co. v. Smith, 171 Ala. 251, 55 So. 170; Alabama Baptist Hospital Board v. Carter, 226 Ala. 109, 145 So. 443; Southern Railway Co. v. Simmons, 237 Ala. 246, 186 So. 566; Alabama Great Southern R. Co. v. Campbell, 32 Ala.App. 348, 26 So.2d 124; Alabama Great Southern R. Co. v. Raney, 34 Ala.App. 125, 37 So.2d 150. The complaint stated a cause of action.

Three other assignments of error will be treated together because they are controlled by the same principles. (1) It is contended that the verdict of the jury and the judgment entered thereon are not sustained by the great preponderance of the evidence, and the court erred in denying appellant's motion to set aside the verdict and the judgment entered thereon and to grant unto appellant a new trial. (2) The verdict of the jury is so against the preponderance of the evidence, after allowing all reasonable presumptions of its correctness, as to show that it is wrong and unjust, and the court erred in denying appellant'...