Lee v. Coca-Cola Bottling Works of Greenwood, Inc.
Lee v. Coca-Cola Bottling Works of Greenwood, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
, The appellant, Henry Lee, filed suit in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District of Tallahatchie County against the appellee, Coca-Cola Bottling Works
The case was submitted to a jury, and the jury returned a verdict for the appellee. The appellant filed a motion for a new trial which was overruled, and judgment was entered in favor of appellee. From that judgment the appellant has prosecuted this appeal.
Two points are argued by appellant’s attorneys as grounds for reversal of the judgment of the lower court: (1) That the court erred in refusing to grant the appellant’s request for a peremptory instruction; and (2) that the court erred in granting certain instructions requested by the appellee.
The evidence offered on behalf of the respective parties was substantially as follows:
The appellant testified that he purchased a carton of “cokes,” which had been bottled by the appellee corporation, from Down’s Grocery Store at Sumner; that his wife at supper time opened one of the bottles and poured about two-thirds of the contents in a drinking glass containing ice; that he drank all of the beverage that had been poured into the drinking glass; and that he then noticed some particles of broken glass in the coca-cola that remained in the bottle. The' appellant stated that he felt no ill effects at the time he drank the coca-cola, but later than night he became sick at the stomach, and did not sleep well. He passed blood the next morning,
Harrison Curtis, the appellee’s President and General Manager, testified at length as to the manner of manufacturing and bottling the drinks at the appellee’s plant, giving minute details as to- the bottling processes and the precautions taken to insure the purity of the beverages offered for sale—precautions which, in his words “made it physically impossible” for particles of glass to have been bottled with the beverage involved in this case.
We think there was no error in the action of the trial judge in refusing to grant the peremptory instruction requested by the appellant.
As stated by the court in Stevens vs. Picayune Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (Miss. 1955) 82 So. 2nd, 453, the evidence offered on behalf of the appellant was sufficient to make out a case to go to the jury under the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur; but the evidence was not sufficient to warrant the giving of a peremptory instruction in favor of the appellant. The testimony of Harrison Curtis, if believed, was sufficient to justify the jury in finding
We find no reversible error in the instructions. The judgment of the lower court is therefore affirmed.
Affirmed.
Reference
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published