West Disinfecting Co. v. Plummer
West Disinfecting Co. v. Plummer
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
Errors are assigned as follows:
That the court erred in refusing to direct a verdict for the defendant at the end of the plaintiff’s case, upon the ground that the acts of the defendant complained of were not the proximate cause of the injury of the plaintiff, and upon the further ground that there was no privity of contract between the plaintiff and the defendant herein.
. The ether assignments are on granting the plaintiff’s first and second prayer and refusing the defendant’s prayers, and for overruling the defendant’s motion in arrest of judgment.
1. The first assignment of error based upon refusal of the inotion. to direct a verdict for the defendant was waived by the defendant’s introduction of evidence. Main v. Aukam, 4 App. D. C. 51; Slye v. Guerdrum, 29 App. D. C. 551-553, and cases there cited.
3. Defendant’s prayer No. 1 was rightly refused. It was not supported by the evidence in the case, which showed that the sprayer was used by the person and in the manner that was intended on its sale. The second prayer, to the effect that plaintiff wTas warned as to the character of the fluid by its name and the nature of its uses or the presence of a label on the first can, was substantially contained in the charge given, and
We find no error in the proceedings, and the judgment will be affirmed, with costs. Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- WEST DISINFECTING COMPANY v. PLUMMER
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Trial; Waiver of Exception; Sale of Dangerous Substances; Proximate Cause; Instructions to Jury. 1. Where the defendant introduces evidence after his motion to direct a verdict in his favor, made at the close of the plaintiff’s case in chief, has been overruled, he waives any exception he may have reserved to the action of the court in overruling Ms motion. (Following Main v. Aukam, 4 App. D. C. 51, and Slye v. Guerdrum, 29 App. D. G. 551.) 2. One who sells an article to another which he knows to be dangerous, without notice of its dangerous nature or qualities, is liable for any injuries which may be reasonably contemplated as likely to result, and which do in fact result therefrom, to that person or any other who is not himself in fault; and it is immaterial whether the person injured was the actual purchaser, if his use of the article was that intended. 3. False representations to the purchaser of an insecticide by the seller, that the article sold would not harm the user of it, or failure on the part of the seller to inform the purchaser of its dangerous character, is the proximate cause of an injury to the purchaser by an explosion of the substance, where there is no other independent or efficient cause or wrong that can be said to have occasioned it. 4. It is not error for the trial court to refuse special instructions to the jury which are not supported by the evidence or which are substantially contained in the charge. 5. Where in a personal-injury action the plaintiff seeks to recover damages for injuries caused by a disinfectant, sold to him by the defendant, being blown into his eyes by the explosion of a sprayer furnished with the substance, when he attempted to use it, and the case turns upon the question of whether the defendant informed the plaintiff of the dangerous character of the substance at the time of its purchase, it is not error for the trial court to refuse an instruction asked by the defendant to the effect that, in order to entitle the plaintiff to recover, he must prove that there was a defect in the sprayer; that the defendant ought to have known that such defect existed, and that the defect was the proximate cause of the injury.