Court Opinion

ID: 9844054
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:57:00.136885+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:27.177386
License: Public Domain

McCOMB, J.
Plaintiff purchased some ready-mixed cement from defendant Rhodes and Jamieson, Ltd., through its employee, defendant Harold Aydelotte. After using the mixture for the purpose for which it was intended, plaintiff suffered severe burns. He brought this action against the two defendants, setting forth causes of action for a breach of warranty and for negligence. The trial court granted a non-suit at the close of plaintiff’s case. Plaintiff appeals.
*192The facts most favorable to plaintiff are:
Plaintiff, a welder by trade, was constructing his own home. Shortly after laying the foundations, he met defendant Aydelotte, an employee of defendant Rhodes and Jamieson. Plaintiff showed Mr. Aydelotte around the premises and particularly the area where it was proposed to lay the concrete basement floor. The state of construction existing when Aydelotte inspected the premises made it apparent that such slab could only be laid by working inside the basement area. Aydelotte solicited the sale of cement for his company, and plaintiff agreed to buy, leaving the type of mixture up to the seller. At 10:30 a. m. on November 10, 1952, the defendant company delivered its first load of mixed cement. In order to reach the basement area, the cement was poured down a chute through a window opening and into the forms. Plaintiff added 10 gallons of water to it and requested that the succeeding loads be wetter. Three loads in all were delivered. Because plaintiff had difficulty in spreading the cement he secured the assistance of a neighbor. They leveled the cement by pushing it into position, using shovels and a long board for this purpose. During this maneuver plaintiff frequently got down on his hands and knees to shove the leveling board. At this time he was wearing galoshes, jeans, a khaki shirt and rubber gloves. Plaintiff testified that the galoshes were not worn to protect him from burns but to protect his feet from getting wet and to enable him to handle the slick shovel. He also testified that he had never seen anyone use rags or padding on his legs to protect them from the cement. He had observed that most cement workers worked while standing on boards, but believed they did this to keep from getting wet and dirty. No one had ever warned him of the danger of getting burned by cement, although he did know that exposure to wet cement caused a drying out of the skin. Prior to the accident he had had some experience with laying cement. On none of these occasions, although he had handled the cement with his bare hands, had he ever been injured by the use of the cement other than á roughening of the skin of his hands.
Plaintiff worked leveling the cement floor from 10:30 a. m. to 3 -.15 p. m. During half of this period his knees and legs were in contact with the wet cement. Shortly after 1 p. m. plaintiff began to notice a “tingle” on his legs, which became increasingly irritating. He continued to work, however, until the job was finished. Thereafter he washed his legs with soap *193and water, observed that his legs “looked green,” changed his clothes and got a neighbor to drive him to the hospital. There he was bathed again, medication applied to his legs, penicillin administered, and he was allowed to go home. Plaintiff returned to the hospital the next day for further treatment. Two days after the exposure to the cement plaintiff’s temperature reached 103 degrees and he was hospitalized. It was then discovered that he was severely burned over 15 per cent of the area of his body, most of the burns being of the third degree type. As a result, two extensive skin grafting operations were performed and plaintiff was hospitalized for nearly two months. A doctor testified that plaintiff was not allergic to cement and “in my opinion this was definitely a chemical burn, due to contact with cement.”
Notice of breach of warranty was reasonably and properly given.
On this evidence, on both causes of action, at the close of plaintiff’s case, a nonsuit was granted.
These questions are presented:
First
Assuming that there was an implied warranty of fitness for the purpose of laying a basement floor including a secondary warranty that the cement was reasonably safe to handle, did the evidence disclose a breach of warranty?
No.
Section 1735 of the Civil Code provides in part: “. . . there is no implied warranty or condition as to the quality or fitness for any particular purpose of goods supplied under a contract to sell or a sale, except as follows:
“ (1) Where the buyer, expressly or by implication, makes known to the seller the particular purpose for which the goods are required, and it appears that the buyer relies on the seller’s skill or judgment (whether he be the grower or manufacturer or not), there is an implied warranty that the goods shall be reasonably fit for such purpose.
“(2) Where the goods are bought by description from a seller who deals in goods of that description (whether he be the grower or manufacturer or not), there is an implied warranty that the goods shall be of merchantable quality.” Plaintiff claims a breach of implied warranty under the provisions of the foregoing section, his theory being that the cement was not of merchantable quality.
No evidence was introduced to show that this cement con*194tained any unusual substance or differed from ordinary cement in any way.
“Merchantable quality” means that the substance sold is reasonably suitable for the ordinary uses it was manufactured to meet. (27 Words and Phrases (perm.ed. 1940), 1955 Pocket Part, p. 26.)
It is conceded that the cement was fit for the purpose of laying a basement floor. This is the only purpose for which the test of merchantability could be applied under the facts of the present case.  There is likewise no merit in the proposition that the cement had a concealed or hidden danger unknown to plaintiff and that defendant should have warned him that it would burn the skin. The injury occurred in the handling of a standard and common commodity.
Dushane v. Benedict, 120 U.S. 630 [7 S.Ct. 696, 30 L.Ed. 810], relied upon by plaintiff is not applicable to the facts in this case. In the cited case defendant sold rags to the plaintiff for the purpose of manufacturing paper. The rags were infected with smallpox and, although they were made into satisfactory paper, several of plaintiff’s employees died of smallpox in the process. There the court properly held there was a breach of warranty of fitness because rags are not normally infected with smallpox. In the present case, quicklime, which has a caustic effect, is one of the necessary ingredients of cement, and it is unquestioned that plaintiff was familiar with this fact.
Second
Was there a showing of negligence upon the part of defendants ?
No.
The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur was not here applicable because in the absence, as in the present case, of evidence of feasible means of discovering the defects or danger in the commodity sold, the seller is not liable for an injury resulting from the use of the commodity. (Honea v. City Dairy, Inc., 22 Cal.2d 614, 618 [3] et seq. [140 P.2d 369].)
The only evidence of any testing was that defendant Rhodes and Jamieson, Ltd., had its product tested for proper proportions of materials to be used for various types of construction.
In addition, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur was not here applicable for the reason that when a plaintiff seeks recovery upon the theory that a commodity contains a foreign substance and admits that he added material to that delivered *195by defendant, plaintiff must affirmatively show that the substance he added did not cause the injury. (Zentz v. Coca Cola Bottling Co., 39 Cal.2d 436, 444 [9] [247 P.2d 344].)
Plaintiff may properly rely upon the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur even though he has participated in the events leading to the accident if the evidence excludes his conduct as the responsible cause. (Zentz v. Coca Cola Bottling Co., supra.)
In the case at bar, plaintiff did not offer any evidence to show that the water which he had added to the cement had no effect.
It is a matter of common knowledge that water activates the lime in cement. (See Dalton v. Pioneer Sand & Gravel Co., 37 Wn.2d 946 [227 P.2d 173, 174 et seq.]; also “lime,” Webster’s New Internat. Dict. (2d ed. 1950), p. 1433; 6 Ency. Britannica (1951 ed.), p. 207.) A street superintendent testified that lime does not give off heat until it becomes wet. Obviously, thinning the solution would allow it to soak through the plaintiff’s clothes more quickly.
Therefore, it is clear that when plaintiff added water to the cement, additional heat was created and the thinning of the cement caused the quicklime to be more readily absorbed by his clothing, which in turn resulted in his being burned.
Our conclusion is fully in accord with two recent decisions of this court. In LaPorte v. Houston, 33 Cal.2d 167 at 170 [199 P.2d 665], Mr. Chief Justice Gibson, speaking for the court said: “It was at least equally probable that the accident was caused by some fault in the mechanism of the car for which defendants were not liable as that it resulted from any negligent act or omission of the mechanic. Accordingly, it cannot be said that it is more likely than not that the accident was caused by the negligence of defendants, and hence the case was not a proper one for the application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur.” In Burr v. Sherwin Williams Co., 42 Cal.2d 682 at 691 [268 P.2d 1041], the Chief Justice, speaking for a unanimous court, said: “The instructions given, however, were erroneous in that, while they purported to state all the conditions under which res ipsa loquitur would be applicable, they did not inform the jury that plaintiffs must show that the instrumentality which caused the damage was not mishandled or its condition otherwise changed after control was relinquished by the person against whom the doctrine is to be applied.” (Italics added.)
*196Since the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is not applicable under the facts of the instant case and there is a total absence of any negligence upon the part of defendants, the non-suit was properly granted upon the second alleged cause of action.
The judgment is affirmed.
Gibson, C. J., Shenk, J., Traynor, J., Schauer, J., and Spence, J., concurred.