Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co.: Strict Products Liability Unbound
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Description
On August 21, 1941, during the dinner shift at Tiny's Waffle Shop in Merced, California, a waitress Gladys Escola began restocking a refrigerator with bottles of Coca Cola. After placing three bottles in the refrigerator, she picked up the fourth from a case that had been delivered two days earlier by the Coca Cola distributor. Suddenly the bottle exploded, lacerating her finger for over five inches along the web between the first finger and thumb. The injury and ensuing operation involved the cutting of muscles, blood vessels and nerves. The resultant permanent tenderness and pain in the scar left Gladys partially incapacitated in her work as a waitress. A claim for workers' compensation resulted in a payment of $42.60 to Mrs. Escola, an amount that did not cover her medical expenses and lost wages. Alleging two counts of negligence, she commenced a tort action against the Coca Cola Bottling Company of Fresno, the company that had filled and distributed the exploding bottle. Based on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, the jury awarded Mrs. Escola compensatory damages of $2,900. Defendant appealed, and the case ultimately worked its way up to the California Supreme Court. At each stage, the merits of the case were decided by application of res ipsa loquitur. The import of the case, however, has little to do with that important evidentiary doctrine. In an opinion concurring with the Supreme Court's affirmance of the jury award, Justice Roger Traynor argued that the award should be affirmed on grounds of strict liability rather than negligence. According to Traynor, strict liability followed from the defendant's breach of the implied warranty of merchantability, an action grounded in tort law rather than contract law as courts had previously assumed. By freeing the implied warranty from contractual restrictions, Traynor helped set in motion the forces that would lead to the widespread adoption of strict products liability. Traynor invoked other reasons for the rule of strict liability that provided important judicial support for enterprise liability, a theory of tort liability developed by the Legal Realists that has had enduring impact on tort doctrine and scholarship.
Source Publication
Torts Stories
Source Editors/Authors
Robert L. Rabin, Stephen D. Sugarman
Publication Date
2003
Recommended Citation
Geistfeld, Mark A., "Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co.: Strict Products Liability Unbound" (2003). Faculty Chapters. 717.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/717
