La Plant v. EI Du Pont De Nemours and Company
La Plant v. EI Du Pont De Nemours and Company
Opinion of the Court
: In this jury-tried action predicated on alleged negligence, plaintiff sued and proceeded to trial against St. John's Levee & Drainage District (referred to as the Drainage District), Ollie Delaney, its supervisor, Cypress Supply Company (referred to as Cypress), and E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company (referred to as DuPont). At the close of plaintiff’s evidence, the Drainage District and Delaney went out of the case on motions for a directed verdict. Upon submission, the jury found against plaintiff and in favor of Cypress but returned a verdict of $4,000 for plaintiff and against DuPont. From the judgment on that verdict, DuPont appeals.
DuPont was sued as the manufacturer of Ammate X, a weed and brush killer, sold by Cypress, a dealer, to the Drainage District for use along its drainage ditches. Plaintiff’s claim was that he had lost, by reason of “nitrate and nitrite poisoning from eating willow leaves” sprayed with Ammate X, eleven registered Hereford cows, one heifer and nineteen aborted calves and that he had incurred certain expenses incident to such loss. The alleged negligence of DuPont, as submitted in plaintiff’s verdict-directing instruction 1, was ( in substance) the mislabeling of Am-mate X as “not hazardous to livestock” although (so plaintiff asserts) “Ammate X when applied to trees and vegetation is an inherently and latently dangerous chemical in that it causes the trees and plants to produce an amount of nitrate and nitrite, which when eaten by livestock, may cause death and damage.” DuPont’s insistence that plaintiff did not make a submissible case necessitates a factual review, which we undertake with this prior emphasis upon the trite but basic principle that, in determination of this issue, we must consider the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff, must accord to him the benefit of all supporting inferences fairly and reasonably deducible from the evidence, and must disregard defendant’s evidence except insofar as it may aid plaintiff’s case. Daniels v. Smith, Mo., 323 S.W.2d 705, 706(2); Hildreth v. Key, Mo.App., 341 S.W.2d 601,
In June 1958, plaintiff, who lived in Sikes-ton, was pasturing two herds of Hereford cattle in nearby New Madrid County. One herd of twenty-six cows was on what plaintiff referred to as (and wc hereinafter call) “the home place” on the east side of a north- and-south drainage ditch maintained by the Drainage District. The other herd of forty-four cows and one bull was on what is known as (and hereinafter called) “the Barnett farm” on the west side of the same drainage ditch opposite the home place. In that area, the levee is on the east side of the drainage ditch; and, with a fenced north- and-south road running along the top of the levee, plaintiff’s herd on the home place could not reach the drainage ditch. The herd on the Barnett farm had access to the drainage ditch through a gap in the fence along the west side of the ditch right of way, usually watered in the drainage ditch, and frequently stood under the young willows at the water’s edge. The Drainage District had given permission to plaintiff and other landowners along the ditch to run cattle on the ditch right of way — “it helped keep down vegetation.”
As a part of the continuing program of the Drainage District to prevent encroachment upon and obstruction of the drainage ditch by luxuriant growth along the banks, employees of the Drainage District under the supervision of Ollie Delaney sprayed along the west bank of the ditch for a distance of 12.8 miles during the period from the latter part of May to the first part of July 1958. This sprayed segment of the ditch included about .75 mile contiguous to the Barnett farm, where the west bank had “a narrow ledge” of young willows at the water’s edge “all along it.” In this spraying operation, the Drainage District used Ammate X, a granular substance, put into solution according to the directions on the sack and sprayed from a boat which moved down the drainage ditch. The result was “almost a complete kill of,the willows.”
While employees of the Drainage District were spraying the bank contiguous to the Barnett farm during “the latter part of June,” plaintiff asked supervisor Delaney “if I (plaintiff) ought to move the cattle out” and “if it would be harmful to them,” to which Delaney gave definite negative answers and the further assurance that “we settled on buying the Ammate X” because the Drainage District “wanted to buy something so the boys wouldn’t have to take their cattle out of the pasture.” Delaney specifically testified that he had relied upon the statement printed on each bag that Animate X, “when used in accordance with directions, is not hazardous to livestock.” About July 15, 1958, and thus about two and one-half weeks after that section of the drainage ditch had been sprayed, plaintiff found a dead cow in his pasture on the Barnett farm. He then “thought-that lightning had hit it.” When, on July 23, plaintiff saw another • dead cow and a sick' cow on the Barnett farm, Dr. F. A. Stepp, a veterinarian at Sikeston, was called to the farm. The dead cow was badly decomposed. With respect to the sick cow, Dr. Stepp made a “tentative diagnosis” of “beginning pneumonia * * associated with a pasteurel-la infection” sometimes called “shipping fever,” treated the cow for that condition, and took a blood sample which upon sub-séquent microscopic examination disclosed no evidence of anthrax or anaplasmosis. That sick cow was much better the next day and apparently recovered. None of the other cattle “showed any indication of being ill” on July 23.
However, when Dr. Stepp and his veterinarian partner, Dr. John R. Adams, were called to the Barnett farm the following day, July 24, they found three dead cows “in and around the (drainage) ditch”; and, in an autopsy on one of those cows, the veterinarians noted that “her rumen content was speckled all through with * ■ dark brown willow leaves,” identical in appearance with the dead leaves on the sprayed willows along the-drainage ditch. Dr Stepp made a “tentative diagnosis of poi
Four more cows died before (as plaintiff put it) “we decided what the trouble was” and moved the remainder of the herd from the drainage ditch right of way “sometime in August.” Another cow died the next day but there were no more deaths in the period of about one month during which the cattle were excluded from the ditch right of way. Being unable to obtain “any definite answers on how long I (plaintiff) should keep them off, that the leaves might still be poisonous” and needing additional pasture at that time of year, plaintiff turned his herd back into the ditch right of way about September 17. Two days later another cow died. Dr. Stepp was called promptly and did a routine autopsy which disclosed that “there was a large amount” of willow leaves in the rumen, reticulum and omasum, the three fore stomachs ahead of the abomasum, the true stomach. The quantity of willow leaves found in this cow “was similar” to that found in the dead cow theretofore autopsied on July 24. Predicated on “everything I had seen in that area in all the trips I made,” Dr. Stepp made a “tentative diagnosis” that the cause of death of the cow autopsied on September 19 was “nitrate and nitrite poisoning from eating willow leaves, subject to a chemical analysis.”
Within five or six hours plaintiff delivered a sample of the stomach contents of this cow to Prof. A. L. Caskey, a chemist at the State College in Cape Girardeau, who on September 20 made a qualitative and semiquantitative test, known as “the brown ring test,” for nitrates. This test showed “a very appreciable amount of nitrate” with concentration of “something like ISO parts per million, * * plus or minus 20 or 30 parts per million.” The tested sample contained “an appreciable amount of willow leaves” estimated by Prof. Cas-key as “in the order of ten per cent.” Dr. Brown, who observed the test, confirmed the finding of “a considerable amount” of nitrates and also stated that the concentration of dead willow leaves in that sample was about the same as in the sample taken from the cow autopsied on July 24. As DuPont’s counsel here emphasize, none of plaintiff’s witnesses testified as to the quantity of nitrates which would constitute a lethal dose for a cow. However, Dr. Brown, who operated a 290-acre farm in Lewis County, Missouri, had had previous experience with nitrate poisoning of cattle and knew “considerable about it.” Although he had lost no cattle by nitrate poisoning, he knew others who had; and, in the course of twenty-one years as a professor at Culver-Stockton College before coming to the State College in Cape Girardeau, he had run nitrate tests on silage which, when eaten by cattle, had resulted in death. According to Dr. Brown, the intensity of the concentration of nitrates in that silage was “about the same” as in the sample from plaintiff’s cow autopsied in September.
The granular, crystalline substance sold under the registered trade-mark name of Ammate X is 95% ammonium sulfamate (or “ammonium salt,” as Dr. Brown explained) and 5% inert ingredients, the latter being added to keep the product in free-flowing form. The parties agree that Am-mate X, as sacked and sold, is not in that form toxic or poisonous. But, plaintiff’s theory has been and is that, when put in solution and applied on foliage, Ammate X may cause the sprayed trees or plants to “produce” (more accurately stated, to draw from the soil) nitrates in such amount that, when the foliage is ingested by cattle, it may, and in this instance did, result in
Defendant adduced substantial evidence tending to establish that the use of Ammate X on willows does not result in an unusual or lethal accumulation of nitrates in the sprayed foliage, and that the death of plaintiff’s cows could not have been caused by ingestion of such foliage. But, a review of that evidence is omitted as without profit or significance here because of the firmly-established appellate policy not to pass upon the weight of the evidence in jury-tried cases [Gould v. M. F. A. Mutual Ins. Co., Mo.App., 331 S.W.2d 663, 670-671(13), and cases there cited] and the time-honored admonition (hereinbefore noted) that, in determining whether plaintiff made a submissible case, we must disregard defendant’s evidence except insofar as it may aid plaintiff.
The substance of the first three points in DuPont’s brief is that it should have had a directed verdict because the evidence was insufficient to permit a finding that any of plaintiff’s cows ingested sufficient nitrates to cause death. Since this appears to be the primary contention, upon which DuPont relies for reversal, we have given it careful consideration and exhaustive study, although none of the cases cited under these points
In its fourth point, DuPont urges that plaintiff did not make a submissible case because: “All of the evidence showed that Ammate X is not a poison, is not inherently dangerous, and is not latently dangerous. It further shows that the accumulation of nitrate in a plant is due to the death of the plant, regardless of the cause of such death. No finding of nitrite was made.” In support of this point, counsel for DuPont refer
DuPont undertakes to oversimplify the issue of submissibility by its argument that Ammate X is not “inherently dangerous” because (as plaintiff’s counsel agreed during trial) a cow “could eat a sack of that stuff” without harm, and that Am-mate X is not “latently dangerous” because: “Its effect is patent. It kills trees, shrubs and weeds. The effect of death to willows and weeds is the concentration of nitrates in their foliage. This is well known.” As DuPont urges, Ammate X may not be “inherently dangerous” within the judicial definition of that term as formulated and expressed in Hull v. Gillioz, 344 Mo. 1227, 1236, 130 S.W.2d 623, 628 (a landmark case in the “attractive nuisance” field), and thereafter quoted with approval in several Missouri cases,
However, we need not do judicial obeisance unto sterile definitions or, groping through an impenetrable fog of terminology, thrash about in a semantic morass. In product liability cases, the principal judicial interest in definition of “inherently dangerous” and “imminently dangerous”
In the same attractive nuisance case [Hull v. Gillioz, supra] from which DuPont’s counsel lift a definition of “inherently dangerous,” it was stated [344 Mo. loc. cit. 1236, 130 S.W.2d loc. cit. 628] that “(m)ost duties, imposed by the law of torts, arise out of circumstances and are based on ‘foreseeability’ or reasonable anticipation that harm or injury is a likely result of acts or omissions.”
Could the jury reasonably have found, as it did, that such danger also was foreseeable by DuPont? Obviously, foreseeability must be conditioned upon knowledge, actual or constructive, of unreasonable risk or danger attendant upon use of the product under consideration.
To have permitted the jury’s finding against DuPont on the issue of foreseeability, it was not necessary “ ‘that damage as a more rather than less probable result should (have been) anticipated. * * Danger consists in the risk of harm, as well as the likelihood of it, and a danger calling for anticipation need not be of more probable occurrence than less. If there is some probability of harm sufficiently serious that ordinary men would take precautions to avoid it, then failure so to do is negligence. * * * The test is not of the balance of probabilities, but of the existence of some probability of sufficient moment to induce action to avoid it on the part of a reasonable mind.’ ”
If (as the jury found) the application of Ammate X to the willows left “a salty residue” upon the foliage which made it “particularly attractive to cattle” and also resulted in a lethal accumulation of nitrates in the foliage, and if (as the jury also found) in the exercise of ordinary care this should have been known to DuPont, certainly the evidence permitted the further finding that DuPont’s labeling of Ammate X as “not hazardous to livestock” was misleading and constituted negligence. “An assurance of safety, as well as a failure to warn of danger, may be negli
What we have written on sub-missibility is dispositive of most of DuPont’s complaints, as particularized in its next point, concerning, plaintiff’s verdict-directing instruction 1; but, we add these brief comments on the complaint “that there was no evidence upon which the jury could base a finding that Ammate X is poisonous.” Instruction 1, almost two and one-half transcript pages in length, included preliminary findings that Ammate X was manufactured and sold by DuPont “for the purpose of killing and poisoning trees and other vegetation” and that the Drainage District purchased Ammate X “for the purpose of killing and poisoning willow trees and other vegetation in * * the right of way.” Neither “poisonous” nor “poisoning” was mentioned elsewhere in the instruction. Admittedly, Ammate X was manufactured and sold “for the purpose of killing * * trees and other vegetation,” including, among the trees specifically named on the sack, “willows”; and, admittedly the Drainage District purchased Ammate X for that purpose. Inclusion- of “poisoning” in the quoted language was ill-advised and injudicious as well as superfluous and unnecessary, but nothing in instruction 1 suggested that Ammate X itself was poisonous to cattle or required any such finding. Reading and construing instruction 1 as a whole and all of the given instructions together [see 27 West’s Missouri Digest, Trial, 295(1)], in the light of the cautionary admonition that, in considering the language of any instruction, we should not be hypercritical but rather should be concerned primarily with its meaning to a jury of
We pass DuPont’s next point as nothing more than an abstract statement or assertion which presents nothing for appellate review. Rule 83.05, subd. (a) (3) and (e), V.A.M.R. [formerly Rule 1.08, subd. (a) (3) and (d)]; Magenheim v. Board of Education of School Dist. of Riverview Gardens, Mo., 340 S.W.2d 619, 621(3); State ex rel. Sisson v. Felker, Mo.App., 336 S.W.2d 419, 420(1).
DuPont also assigns error in refusal of its instruction D1 because (so counsel say) it “was the converse in part of instruction 1.” This point (and, for that matter, all of DuPont’s points pertaining to instructions) might well be disposed of summarily for failure to comply with the plain requirement of Rule 83.05(a), V.A.M.R., that “(i)f a point relates to the giving, refusal or modification of an instruction (or instructions), such instruction (s) shall be set forth in full in the argument portion of the brief unless the point can be readily discerned and understood from a reading of only the questioned portion of the instruction, in which event it shall be sufficient to set forth only the latter.” See Brown v. Thomas, Mo.App., 316 S.W.2d 234, 237(9). But, considered on its merits, this point is without substance.
Finally, DuPont attacks plaintiff’s instruction 2 on the measure of damages on the ground that it authorizes recovery (1) “for the value of unborn calves lost, although there is no allegation of such loss in the petition and no evidence as to the value of an unborn calf” and (2) “for the' reasonable value of plaintiff’s time expended in the treatment and handling of injured cattle, although there is no evidence thereof.” We observe preliminarily that instruction 2 also permitted recovery “for the reasonable market value of the dead' cattle” and “for the amount (of) the veterinary and chemist bills actually incurred in the diagnosis and treatment of the injured cattle.” Considering first the aborted calves, it is true that plaintiff’s petition contained no specific allegation of this item of damage; but, without objection, plaintiff testified concerning his loss of nineteen aborted calves and, again without objection, Dr. Stepp explained why plaintiff’s cows “affected” (but not killed) by nitrate poisoning would have aborted their calves. In this state of the record, DuPont will not be heard to complain now that the item of damage for loss of the aborted calves was not within the pleadings. Rule 55.54, V.A.M.R.; V.A.M.S. § 509.500; Hart v. Midkiff, Mo., 321 S.W.2d 500, 507 (9); Evett v. Corbin, Mo., 305 S.W.2d 469, 474(5, 6). And, there was evidence to support submission of this item, for, in response to the question, “what is the value of a live dropped calf,” plaintiff answered without objection “a hundred dollars.”
Adverting to the complaint about plaintiffs time, we find averment of this item of damage in the petition, and plaintiff's testimony that, during the period from July 15 to October -1, 1958, he made two round trips (of fifty-two miles each) daily from his home to the Barnett farm for which an aggregate mileage charge of $390 would have been reasonable and, during the same period, made five round trips to Cape Girardeau for which an aggregate mileage charge of $33 would have been reasonable. But, there was no direct evidence as to “the reasonable value of plaintiff’s time,” so that item of damage should not
Finding no reversible error in any particular assigned, the judgment is affirmed.
. Kolie v. Ruby, Mo.App., 300 S.W.2d 545; Rogers v. Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co., Mo.App., 283 S.W.2d 664; Bowman v. Heffron, Mo., 318 S.W.2d 269; Jenkins v. Wabash R. Co., Mo., 322 S.W.2d 788; Hart v. Midkiff, Mo., 321 S.W.2d 500; Hunter v. E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., D.C.Mo., 170 F.Supp. 352.
. Abbott v. Vanmeter, 142 Ark. 601, 219 S.W. 330, 331(1); Williams Sign Co. v. Rodgers, Tex.Civ.App., 24 S.W.2d 478 (1); Texas & N. O. R. Co. v. Jones, Tex.Civ.App., 242 S.W. 269(1); Thompson v. Walsh, 203 Okl. 453, 223 P.2d 357, 359-360(1, 2); Hale v. Lehigh Valley Ry. Co., 87 Pa.Super. 489, 492; 65 C.J.S. Negligence § 244a, loc. cit. 1090-1091, 1099 (footnote 5).
. E. g., St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co. v. Fletcher, 159 Ark. 344, 253 S.W. 12, 33 A.L.R. 445; Mossrud v. Lee, 163 Wis. 229, 157 N.W. 758, 17 N.C.C.A. 214; Cole v. New England Tree Expert Co., 53 R.I. 67, 163 A. 742; White v. Splawn, 16 Wash.2d 296, 133 P.2d 298; Underhill v. Motes, 158 Kan. 173, 146 P.2d 374.
. Vogrin v. Forum Cafeterias of America, Mo., 308 S.W.2d 617, 619 (terrazzo sidewalk not inherently dangerous but defendant negligent in failing to take precautions to prevent pedestrians from slipping thereon in rainy weather); Fitzpatrick v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co., Mo., 300 S.W.2d 490, 499 (contention that ballast and dust along roadbed were not inherently dangerous was “not wholly without merit”); Hiltner v. Kansas City, Mo., 293 S.W.2d 422, 426 (safety zone not inherently dangerous); Brown v. City of Craig, 350 Mo. 836, 840, 168 S.W.2d 1080, 1082 (city jail not inherently dangerous); Emery v. Thompson, 347 Mo. 494, 498, 148 S.W.2d 479, 480 (railroad ties piled on right of way not inherently dangerous);. Thompson v. Paseo Manor South, Inc., Mo.App., 331 S.W.2d 1, 6 (unprotected heating pipes so located that tenants in. apartment house “could easily come in contact therewith” were inherently dangerous); Street v. W. E. Callahan Const. Co., Mo.App., 147 S.W.2d 153, 155 (cooper’s bucket with heavy handle-in upright, unlocked position was inherently dangerous).
. Midwest Game Co. v. M. F. A. Milling Co., Mo., 320 S.W.2d 547, 551; Orr v. Shell Oil Co., 352 Mo. 288, 294, 177 S.W.2d 608, 612 (2); Tayer v. York Ice Machinery Corp., 342 Mo. 912, 920, 119 S.W.2d 240, 242, 117 A.L.R. 1414, 1419; McLeod v. Linde Air Products Co., 318 Mo. 397, 406, 1 S.W.2d 122, 126(2); Alexander v. Inland Steel Co., 8 Cir., 263 F.2d 314, 322; annotation 105 A.L.R. 1502, 1503; annotation 17 A.L.R. 672, 683-See 1 Frumer & Friedman, Products Liability, § 5.03(1), p. 23 (1960).
. A product is imminently dangerous “if, although it is not dangerous by its nature and is safe to be used for the purpose intended when properly constructed, it contains a defect which renders dangerous when applied to its intended use in the usual and customary manner.” Annotation 74 A.L.R.2d 1111, 1165 (1960).
. Emery v. Thompson, supra, 347 Mo. loc. cit. 498, 148 S.W.2d loc. cit. 480(3); Street v. W. E. Callahan Const. Co., supra, 147 S.W.2d loc. cit. 155(3); Taylor v. Hitt, Mo.App., 342 S.W.2d 489, 494(7). See also 2 Harper & James, Torts, § 16.9, loc. cit. 929.
. Arnold v. May Department Stores Co., 337 Mo. 727, 736, 85 S.W.2d 748, 753 (1); Barken v. S. S. Kresge Co., Mo. App., 117 S.W.2d 674, 679(9); Eddy v. Missouri Public Service Co., Mo.App., 309 S.W.2d 4, 9(4).
. Eddy v. Missouri Public Service Co., supra, 309 S.W.2d loc. cit. 9(5-7); E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. v. Baridon, 8 Cir., 73 F.2d 26, 30-31; 2 Harper & James, Torts, §§ 28.6-28.9, pp. 1546-1555; 1 Framer & Friedman, Products Liability, § 8.03(1), loc. cit. 148; annotation 86 A.L.R. 947; annotation 26 A.L.R.2d 903, 973.
. Braun v. Roux Distributing Co., Mo., 312 S.W.2d 758, 763(1); 2 Harper & James, Torts, § 28.4, p. 1541; Id., § 28.7, p. 1551; 1 Frumer & Friedman, Products Liability, § 8.01, loc. cit. 144-145; Id., § 8.03, loe. cit. 148; annotation 86 A.L.R. 947, 950.
. Vosburg v. Smith, Mo.App., 272 S.W.2d 297, 302(9), and cases collected in footnote 9; Lomax v. Sawtell, Mo.App., 286 S.W.2d 40, 42(1); Ferrell v. Sikeston Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Mo.App., 320 S.W.2d 292, 296(7), and cases collected in footnote 2.
. Bean v. Boss Manufacturing Co., Mo., 344 S.W.2d 18, 25; Pease v. Sinclair Refining Co., 2 Cir., 104 F.2d 183, 186, 123 A.L.R. 933, 938; Tullgren v. Amoskeag Mfg. Co., 82 N.H. 268, 276, 133 A. 4, 8, 46 A.L.R. 380, 387-388. See also Haberly v. Reardon Co., Mo., 319 S.W.2d 859, 868; Zuber v. Clarkson Const. Co., 363 Mo. 352, 357, 251 S.W.2d 52, 55(6); Wilson v. White, Mo.App., 272 S.W.2d 1, 5(5, 6).
. Witness the Bean, Haberly and Braun cases, supra.
. E. g., Martin v. Bengue, Inc., 25 N.J. 359, 136 A.2d 626, 633(7); Hopkins v. E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., 3 Cir., 199 F.2d 930, 933-934; 2 Harper & James, Torts, § 16.5, loc. cit. 916; Id., § 16.10, p. 936; Dillard & Hart, Product Liability: Directions for Use and the Duty to Warn, 41 Va.L.Rev. 145, 157."
. Steele v. Woods, Mo., 327 S.W.2d 187, 200; Cohagan v. Laclede Steel Co., Mo., 317 S.W.2d 452, 453(1); Venditti v. St. Louis Public Service Co., 362 Mo. 339, 240 S.W.2d 921, 926(6); Hill v. Torrey, Mo.App., 320 S.W.2d 594, 595(1).
. Nelson v. O’Leary, Mo., 291 S.W.2d 142, 147(4); DeLay v. Ward, 364 Mo. 431, 262 S.W.2d 628, 633(4); Johnson v. Weston, Mo.App., 330 S.W.2d 160, 163; Bronson v. Kansas City, Mo.App., 323 S.W.2d 526, 531(12); Adkins v. Sutherland Lumber Co., Mo.App., 307 S.W.2d 17, 18(2).
. See the following cases, in which an assurance of safety toas coupled, with no toarning or an inadequate warning: Smith v. Atco Co., 6 Wis.2d 371, 94 N.W. 2d 697, 74 A.L.R.2d 1095; Crist v. Art Metal Works, 230 App.Div. 114, 243 N.Y.S. 496, affirmed 255 N.Y. 624, 175 N.E. 341; Henry v. Crook, 202 App.Div 19, 195 N.Y.S. 642; Dunn v. Ralston Purina Co., 38 Tenn.App. 229, 272 S.W.2d 479. And tlie following, in which there was no warning: Midwest Game Co. and Martin cases, supra; Earley v. Edward E. Tower & Co., 271 Mass. 230, 171 N.E. 639, 86 A.L.R. 941. And the following, in which there was an inadequate toarn-ing: the Bean, Haberly, Braun and Hopkins cases, supra; Tampa Drug Co. v. Wait, Fla., 103 So.2d 603; Maize v. Atlantic Refining Co., 352 Pa. 51, 41 A.2d 850, 160 A.L.R. 449; McClanahan v. California Spray-Chemical Corp., 194 Va. 842, 75 S.E.2d 712.
070rehearing
On Motions for Rehearing or to Transfer
The first section of DuPont’s motion for rehearing or, in the alternative, to transfer rests uneasily on the palpably deceptive and patently fallacious reasoning that, although Ammate X caused the death of the sprayed willows and their dying caused the storing of nitrates, Ammate X did not cause such storing of nitrates. Suffice it to say that the judicially-accepted test as to causal connection is whether the facts show that, absent the negligent act, the injury or damage would not have been sustained [Housden v. E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Mo., 321 S.W.2d 430, 433(3); Votrain v. Illinois Terminal R. Co., Mo., 268 S.W.2d 838, 843(4); Wood v. St. Louis Public Service Co., 362 Mo. 1103, 1109, 246 S.W.2d 807, 811(4)], and that it usually is sufficient to constitute proximate cause that the negligence charged was the efficient cause which set in motion the chain of circumstances leading to the injury or damage. Floyd v. St. Louis Public Service Co., Mo., 280 S.W.2d 74, 78(8); Thebeau v. Thebeau, Mo., 324 S.W.2d 674, 678(2); Hildreth v. Key, supra, 341 S.W.2d loc. cit. 607(12).
The second section of DuPont’s motion necessarily depends upon the similarly deceptive and equally fallacious reasoning that, even though Ammate X caused the death of the sprayed willows and their dying caused a lethal accumulation of nitrates, DuPont was not negligent in its labeling because Ammate X itself was not toxic or poisonous to cattle. But, by its labeling of Ammate X, DuPont recommended the use of that product for “difficult to control species * * * such as willow,” gave detailed directions for “foliage spray application,” and included the unqualified and unrestricted assurance that “Ammate X * * * when used in accordance with directions, is not hazardous to livestock.” An inescapable incident of such recommended use, which (as pointed out in our opinion but conveniently ignored in DuPont’s motion for rehearing) was an integral element of plaintiff’s theory and submission, was that application of Ammate X left “a salty residue” on the willow leaves making them “particularly attractive to cattle.” Thus, as the jury found, the use of Ammate X, in accordance with directions, not only caused the sprayed willows to die
In affirming the submissibility of plaintiff’s case on the theory that DuPont’s labeling of Ammate X was misleading in its failure to warn, we have not (as DuPont now complains) established any new principle of tort liability. On the contrary, we have but recognized and applied the settled principle, freshly stated with copious citation of supporting authority in Bean v. Ross Manufacturing Co., Mo., 344 S.W.2d 18, 25, that: “The supplier of a chattel is subject to liability for injury in its use by another when the supplier knows or should know that its use is or is likely to be dangerous and when there is no reason to believe that the user will realize this, if, further, he (the supplier) fails to use reasonable care to warn.” See also Midwest Game Co. v. M. F. A. Milling Co., Mo., 320 S.W.2d 547, 551, in which plaintiff stated a cause of action for defendant’s negligence in failing to warn that a packaged fish food was not a “complete” food, although it “was not inherently dangerous” and became dangerous “in the sense that sickness and death of fish would result” only when used as a “complete” food.
DuPont need not be exercised about possible misapplication of the instant decision in knife, ladder and bicycle cases. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” [Matthew 6:34] and unto the case the problems thereof. No two cases are poured in the same factual mold, and each must be ruled on its own facts. “What, if any, precautions are required (of a manufacturer) is a question that will vary with the circumstances and will, as always, depend upon a balancing of the likelihood of harm, and the gravity of harm if it happens, against the burden of the precaution which would be effective to avoid the harm.” 2 Harper & James, Torts, § 28.4, loc. cit. 1542. The law does not impose upon manufacturers any duty to warn of many common dangers, for no one needs notice of what he already knows or reasonably may be expected to know. Jamieson v. Woodward & Lothrop, supra, 247 F.2d loc. cit. 25-30; 2 Harper & James, Torts, § 28.5, p. 1542. But, there has been and still is no suggestion that instant plaintiff either knew, or reasonably might have been expected to know either that application of Ammate X might result in a lethal accumulation of nitrates in the sprayed willow leaves or that such application would leave “a salty residue” on the sprayed leaves which would make them “particularly attractive to cattle.”
These closing comments are prompted by the gratuitous and brash adjuration of DuPont’s counsel that we should not be concerned with the judicial, economic and social climate of our day and that our function is simply “to find the common law of England as it existed in 1607 and the statutory modifications thereof”—an admonition which becomes more than passing strange in the light of the fact that counsel do not undertake “to find the common law of England as it existed in 1607” with respect to the legal problems presented by this twentieth-century chemical weed killer case. Our Supreme Court has defined the common law as “ ‘a system of elementary rules and of general judicial declarations of principles, which are continually expanding with the progress of society, adapting themselves to the gradual changes of trade, commerce, arts, inventions, and the exigencies and usages of the country.’ ” State ex rel. Schlueter Mfg. Co. v. Beck, 337 Mo. 839, 847, 85 S.W.2d 1026, 1029-1030. “(T)he common law is not a static but a dynamic and growing thing. Its rules arise from the application of reason to the changing conditions of society. It inheres in the life of society, not in the decisions interpreting that life * * Barnes Coal Corp. v. Retail Coal Merchants Ass’n, 4 Cir., 128 F.2d 645, 648(5); Roach v. Harper, 143 W.Va. 896, 105 S.E.2d 564, 568. And, “flexibility and capacity for growth and adaptation is the peculiar boast
DuPont’s motion for a rehearing or, in the alternative, to transfer is overruled.
McDOWELL and RUARK, JJ., concur.,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Clifford L. LA PLANT, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS AND COMPANY, Inc., Defendant-Appellant
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- Published