Case Title: Graham v. Bottenfield's, Inc.

Citation: 176 Kan. 68, 269 P.2d 413

Docket Number: 

State: kansas

Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Date: 1954-04-10T00:00:00Z

Document:
176 Kan. 68 (1954)
269 P.2d 413
MARY ANN GRAHAM, Appellee,
v.
BOTTENFIELD'S, INC., a Corporation, Appellant.
No. 39,292

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed April 10, 1954.
P.E. Nulton, of Pittsburg, argued the cause, and R.L. Letton, of Pittsburg, was with him on the briefs for the appellant.
Pete Farabi, of Pittsburg, argued the cause and was on the briefs for the appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
PARKER, J.:
This was an action to recover for injuries alleged to have been sustained from the use of a hair preparation, known as "Miss Clairol." The defendant appeals from an order overruling its demurrer to the petition.
Failure of the petition to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action is the sole issue involved on appeal. For that reason, because it discloses the factual situation, about as clearly as it could be described in narrative form, and definitely outlines the legal theory on which plaintiff bases her right to relief, we shall quote from such pleading at length, omitting only formal averments and other immaterial allegations to which brief reference will be made.
After stating plaintiff is a resident of Pittsburg, that the defendant Bottenfield's, Inc., is a Kansas corporation, engaged in the business of wholesaling, distributing and selling beauty and barber supplies in Crawford county, and that the defendant Clairol Inc., is a foreign corporation, located at Stamford, Conn., and engaged in the business *69 of selling the involved hair preparation in the state of Kansas without authority of law, the petition reads:
The remainder of the petition consists of allegations relating to the amount of damages sustained as a result of plaintiff's alleged injuries and a prayer for judgment in accord therewith.
For purposes of supplementing the factual picture only it should be noted at this point that the owner of the beauty shop (Mrs. Pearl Baker) was not made a party, that a pretended service of summons on the manufacturer (Clairol, Inc.) was set aside, and that the only defendant now involved in the action is the distributor (Bottenfield's, Inc.) who sold the product in question to the beauty shop owner.
From an examination of the foregoing petition it is clear that appellee's cause of action is predicated upon the breach of an implied warranty on the part of the manufacturer, the distributor, and for that matter the owner of the beauty shop even though she was not made a party to the action, that "Miss Clairol" when manufactured, when sold, and when subsequently used was suited and fit for use as a hair preparation and contained no deleterious or harmful substances making it unwholesome or injurious to her when applied to her hair and scalp by a beautician.
Appellee states, and we find nothing in our reports to the contrary, that so far as it relates to the sufficiency of a petition in charging a cause of action for breach of implied warranty in the manufacture and sale of a product of the particular type here involved, this is a case of first impression in this court. This, we may add, is true notwithstanding our decision in Frier v. Proctor & Gamble Distributing Co., 173 Kan. 733, 252 P.2d 850, on which appellant, with some justification, seeks to place weight as a precedent. Resort to that opinion discloses there was no claim the petition failed to state a cause of action, that the cause proceeded to trial, and that at the close of plaintiff's evidence the court took the case away from the jury, after a demurrer had been lodged against the plaintiff's *71 evidence, and rendered judgment for the defendant principally, if not entirely, upon the premise that under the conditions and circumstances there involved the plaintiff's continued use of the product made her guilty of contributory negligence which precluded her recovery as a matter of law. If, as appellant suggests, the language, to be found in the first portion of the last paragraph commencing on page 735 of the opinion, is susceptible of a construction that the decision is based upon lack of privity between the parties to the action it is to be disregarded. Moreover, in a subsequent decision, in Nichols v. Nold, 174 Kan. 613, 621, 258 P.2d 317, with specific reference to the Frier case, we said "The only point upon which the case can be relied upon as an authority is that under some circumstances the plaintiff in such a case, after all the evidence is in, may be called upon to make an election as to whether he is proceeding upon negligence or contract."
In support of its position the trial court erred in overruling the demurrer to the petition appellant directs our attention, at the outset, to decisions of this court holding that ordinarily there is no privity of contract between the original vendor of personal property and third persons who may purchase or acquire the property from the original vendee; and the original vendor's warranty is a personal obligation between him and his own vendee which does not run with the property like covenants concerning real estate (Booth v. Scheer, 105 Kan. 643, 185 Pac. 898; Lumber Co. v. Mercantile Co., 114 Kan. 10, 216 Pac. 815).
We have no quarrel with the rule announced in the foregoing decisions. The difficulty, from appellant's standpoint, is that long ago this court, even when applying such rule, recognized that it was subject to certain exceptions. This is well illustrated in the opinion of the early case of Lukens v. Freiund, 27 Kan. 664, where it was said:
From what has been heretofore stated it becomes obvious our problem in this case is to determine whether the facts pleaded are sufficient to bring it within what, in the light of modern decisions, has come to be regarded as one of the exceptions to the general rule.
This we may add is impliedly, if not expressly, conceded by both parties, the appellant insisting that no exception has application while the over-all contentions advanced by appellee, in support of the trial court's ruling on the demurrer, are that the exception recognized in food cases has been expanded to include products of the type here involved or, if it has not, that under the allegations of the petition logic and sound reason compel a conclusion it should be so extended.
We are not disposed to labor our decisions which recognize the exception and apply the rule that where food is sold by a dealer for domestic consumption there is an implied warranty that it is sound and wholesome. It may be said they are considered and discussed in Swengel v. F. & E. Wholesale Grocery Co., 147 Kan. 555, 77 P.2d 930, which, we pause to note, is the latest decision in this jurisdiction dealing with that particular question and is therefore the last word on the subject, where it is held:
*73 And in the opinion, with particular reference to the force and effect to be given our previous decisions, said:
*74 The next decision of this court, dealing with the sufficiency of a petition where the pleader sought to state a cause of action based upon liability of the seller of an article not inherently dangerous to a third person for injury resulting from the unsafe, unfit, and dangerous conditions of such article at the time of its sale or delivery, is to be found in Nichols v. Nold, 174 Kan. 613, 258 P.2d 317. Nothing would be gained by a detailed review of the long and considered opinion in that case. It suffices to say that upon careful examination of such decision it must be conceded that what is there said and held respecting the doctrine of implied warranty results in an expansion of that doctrine, as theretofore applied under our decisions to sales of food for domestic consumption, to include an implied warranty of the safe and nonexplosive condition of glass bottles when sold and/or delivered in connection with the sale of Pepsi-Cola or other liquid beverages.
If the reasons assigned in the Nichols and Swengel cases, supra, for recognizing the exceptions to the general rule of the common law are to be followed and adhered to we are forced to agree there is merit in appellee's position that there is just as much reason for holding public policy, which it is to be noted is the basic foundation for the imposition of liability under the doctrine of implied warranty in cases of such character (see Lukens v. Freiund, 669, supra; also Nichols v. Nold, 621 to 624, incl., supra), requires, that a manufacturer, jobber or distributor who sells "Miss Clairol" for use by beauticians on the hair and scalp of beauty shop customers impliedly warrants that preparation as suited and fit for use as a hair preparation which contains no deleterious or harmful substances making it unwholesome or injurious to such customers when so used, as there is for holding that food manufactured and sold for domestic consumption is impliedly warranted as wholesome and fit for that purpose or that glass bottles when sold and/or delivered in connection with the sale of liquid beverages are impliedly warranted to be in a safe and nonexplosive condition. Therefore, on the basis of the reasoning of such decisions and what is there said and held, consistency requires and we feel constrained to hold the scope of the exception to the common law rule of caveat emptor, to which we have heretofore referred, should be extended to include sales of the product here in question.
Having reached the foregoing conclusion it necessarily follows that the allegations of the instant petition are sufficient to state a cause of action based on implied warranty and that the action of *75 the trial court in overruling the demurrer to that pleading should be upheld.
In arriving at the conclusion just announced we have given careful consideration and attention to the arguments advanced by appellant, many phases of which have been touched upon by what has been heretofore stated, to the effect the petition fails to state a cause of action because (1) there was no privity of contract between it and the appellee and (2) the hair dye "Miss Clairol" was not manufactured or packed by it and hence it was under no duty to test that preparation. In our opinion, with similar confronting facts and circumstances, both of these contentions have been decided adversely to appellant's position respecting them. The first in Nichols v. Nold, supra, where it is said in substance that privity of contract, in the sense it is ordinarily used, is not required in order to establish liability where the source of the obligation (implied warranty) is imposed by the law on the basis of public policy. The second was definitely determined (see portions of the opinion heretofore quoted) in Swengel v. F. & E. Wholesale Grocery Co., supra.
The judgment is affirmed.
PRICE, J., dissenting.