Selfridge v. Carnation Co.

SCHOTTKY, J.

Geraldine A. Selfridge has appealed from a judgment in favor of Carnation Company and Joseph Loomis in an action brought by her to recover for injuries sustained when a glass milk bottle she was holding broke. Nonsuits were granted Glass Containers Corporation and Owens-Illinois Glass Company. No appeal has been taken from the judgment of nonsuit so that judgment is not involved in this appeal.

It appears from the record that on October 3, 1958, Loomis, an employee of the Carnation Company, delivered two bottles of milk to Mrs. Self ridge. She testified that she met the milkman at the door to her front porch, opened the door for him, and received in her left hand a bottle of milk which instantly exploded, injuring her. She insisted that the bottle did not come in contact with any other object.

Mr. Loomis testified that he delivered two quarts of milk to Mrs. Self ridge by placing them in her hands. He then picked up two empty bottles and started to return to his delivery truck. He heard a crash, turned around and saw Mrs. Selfridge some 4 or 5 feet inside her front door and turned toward her right as if to start toward her kitchen.

Mrs. Self ridge testified that milk was splattered all over— on the walls, doors and in the hallway. The largest quantity, was in the hallway. One witness said that only the bottom part of the bottle was intact. The hallway, the wall, and the floor were covered with glass.

Mr. Loomis cleaned up the area after Mrs. Selfridge. He removed and disposed of most of the broken glass. Some of

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the pieces which remained were examined by a specialist in glass technology. He testified that the glass particles represented the center area of a percussion cone fracture, a fracture caused by a hard impact. He testified that the fracture was produced at the time of the original breakage. The force of the impact would have broken any bottle, even a new one. The fragments which the expert examined were not the type of fragmentation due to an explosion. If there had been any pressure in the bottle, the cap of the bottle would have left the bottle first since a milk bottle cap resists only one or two pounds of pressure.