Court Opinion

ID: 9559957
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:39:21.677665+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:55.124273
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
MacIntyre, P. J.
In their motion for rehearing, which is exceedingly well prepared, counsel attempt to point out that the court has enunciated “two entirely new principles of law: (A) That in a common-law action of negligence against a restaurateur for serving unwholesome food, it is not necessary, as against general demurrer, to allege any knowledge on his part of the unwholesomeness of the food; [and] (B) That the striking of the portion of a sentence wherein negligence is particularized converts the remaining fragment of the sentence into an allegation of general negligence; to be exact, the striking of the underscored portions of the following sentences left the remaining portions thereof as allegations of general negligence:
“Defendant was negligent in serving such food, and knew, or ought to have known of its unwholesome character as aforesaid, so as to prevent the injuries caused plaintiff by such food.
“Plaintiff further shows that defendant was negligent in serving to plaintiff such unwholesome, deleterious and harmful food for that defendant knew or ought to have known of the condition and unwholesome character of said food.”
*98We have carefully considered the first of counsel’s contentions, (A), made in the motion for rehearing and have carefully reconsidered each of the cases cited upon this point. We think that it is unnecessary to add anything to what has been said in the opinion upon this point.
As to the second contention of counsel, (B), made in the motion for rehearing, we feel constrained to say that we are much impressed with the excellence and beauty of counsel’s logic when it is applied to the second sentence of the two which counsel sets out in contention (B) and which we have quoted above. This sentence is unmistakably the allegation made in paragraph 31 of the plaintiff’s petition and it is true that were this the only allegation wherein the plaintiff sought to charge the defendant generally with negligence, the allegation would be woefully inadequate with the italicized portion stricken, as it was on special demurrer. The allegation without the italicized portion would be meaningless, for to say that a defendant “was negligent in serving to plaintiff such unwholesome, deleterious and harmful food for that defendant . .” would require an addition—an extrapolation so to speak—which this court is not authorized to supply.
The allegation of negligence contained in that sentence is not, however, the only one in the petition which seeks to chargs the defendant generally with negligence. In paragraph 5 of the petition the plaintiff alleges: “. . . Defendant was negligent in serving such food, and knew or ought to have known, of its unwholesome character as aforesaid, so as to prevent the injuries caused plaintiff by such food,” and the italicized portion of that sentence was stricken on special demurrer, leaving the simple, direct allegation that the defendant was negligent in serving such food, and that allegation is meaningful and requires no greater specificity to stand invincible before a general demurrer. We do not recognize the origin of counsel’s first sentence in contention B of the motion for rehearing, which we have quoted above. The exact words of that sentence have not been found by the court in the plaintiff’s petition. And, applying the well-known rule of construction of petitions as against a general demurrer, if any part of the petition is good, that is, states a cause of action, the petition will not be dismissed, we *99adhere to our original decision that the petition was not subject to general demurrer.