County Escola Vs Coca Cola Bottling Company Case

As we go about our daily lives we interact with a variety of products and services, many of which are key parts into how we live. We trust the policies, procedures and laws that are in place within society to protect us is the event we are to incur harm. The issue of product liability has become increasingly prominent in the news and has left many individuals wondering how safe the products we use daily are. The issue of tort and product liability was no more aware than the case of Gladys Escola, Respondent, v. Coca Cola Bottling Company of Fresno. It highlighted how issues that are interpreted as isolated could become a bigger problems and lead to large litigation cases. In papers filed with the Supreme Court of California on July 5, 1944. Plaintiff Gladys Escola a waitress claims she was unloading bottles of Coca Cola that had been delivered a day prior she states that on attempting to place one of the bottles in the refrigerator the bottle exploded in her hand and the jagged pieces placed a deep five inch cut in hand. Leaving her with separated blood vessels and nerves. She sought to get monetary compensation for what she thought was negligence on the part of the Coca Cola Company for placing too much gas or carbonation in the glass bottles leaving them with the potential to explode.

“A pressure test is made by taking a sample from each mold every three hours — approximately one out of every 600 bottles — and subjecting the sample to an internal pressure of 450 pounds per square inch, which is sustained for one minute. (The normal pressure in Coca Cola bottles is less than 50 pounds per square inch.) The sample bottles are also subjected to the standard thermal shock test. The witness stated that these tests are "pretty near" infallible.” (Supreme Court of