24 S.E.2d 858 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1943
1. Persons who engage in selling for human consumption meat or meat products are bound to exercise reasonable care and diligence, and they may be liable where unwholesome or spoiled meat is knowingly or carelessly sold and persons suffer damages because of illness resulting from eating such meat. Where an ordinance of the City of Thomasville regulates the sale therein of any meat or meat food product, except cured meats, unless such meat or meat food product has been stamped and approved by the city's inspector, or has been stamped and branded by the United States Government inspector, a person who sells at his place of business in Thomasville a meat food product coming within the prohibition of this section, knowing that such meat or meat food product has neither been stamped and approved by the city's inspector nor has been stamped or branded by the United States Government inspector, where such meat or meat food product is poisonous, contaminated, and unhealthy and not fit for human consumption, is guilty of negligence in selling such food to a person whom he knows is buying it for the purpose of eating it, notwithstanding the fact that the dealer does not know of its unwholesome condition; and he is liable to such person buying the meat (who believes that it is in good condition and that it has been inspected, and who does not know of its unwholesome and poisonous condition, and who can not discover such condition, which is latent, by the exercise of ordinary care) for becoming poisoned and sick from having eaten such meat or meat food product.
2. Where the unwholesome meat sold is souse meat or hogshead cheese, it is not cured meat which is excepted under the terms of the ordinance.
3. The petition set out a cause of action, and the court erred in sustaining the general demurrer.
The defendant demurred to the petition, on the ground that no cause of action was set out. The judge sustained the demurrer, and the plaintiff excepted.
The ordinance makes it unlawful for any meat or meat food product, except cured meats, to be sold or offered for sale in the City of Thomasville, unless such meat has been inspected and stamped as provided in the ordinance. "Any person who knowingly or carelessly sells to another unwholesome products of any kind, the defect being unknown to the purchaser, by the use of which damage results to the purchaser or his family, shall be liable in damages for such injury." Code § 105-1101. Persons who engage in the business of furnishing food for human consumption are bound to exercise due care and diligence respecting its fitness, *146
and they may be held liable in damages, if by reason of any negligence on their part, contaminated and spoiled or unwholesome food is sold and persons are made ill and suffer damages as the result of eating such food. McPherson v. Capuano,
The present suit is not against the manufacturer of an unwholesome product which the plaintiff had purchased from the retail dealer, but is an action under the Code, § 105-1101, against a retail merchant for "knowingly or carelessly" selling an unfit food product. Nothing in Armour Co. v. Miller,
There is no merit in the contention of the defendant that souse meat or hogshead cheese comes within the exception in the ordinance of the City of Thomasville relating to "cured meats," and therefore would not have to be inspected and approved before sold to the public. The court erred in sustaining the general demurrer.
Judgment reversed. Sutton and Felton, JJ., concur.