Kolarik v. Cory International Corp.
2006 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 114, 60 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 1086, 721 N.W.2d 159 (2006)
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Rule of Law:
Under the reasonable expectation test, a seller of processed foods may be found negligent for failing to warn consumers of the potential presence of harmful natural components, such as pits or bones, that the processing is intended to remove.
Facts:
- Cory International Corporation, Italica Imports, and Tee Pee Olives, Inc. were importers and wholesalers of pimento-stuffed green olives grown in Spain.
- The defendants received bulk shipments of pitted and stuffed olives in large drums.
- At their facility, defendants would wash the olives and repackage them into glass jars for retail sale under labels including 'Italica Spanish Olives.'
- Defendants relied on their Spanish suppliers for the quality control of the olive pitting and stuffing process.
- Douglas C. Kolarik purchased a jar of these olives and used them in a salad.
- While eating the salad, Kolarik bit down on an olive pit or a fragment of a pit, causing one of his teeth to fracture.
Procedural Posture:
- Douglas C. Kolarik filed a product-liability action against Cory International Corporation, Italica Imports, and Tee Pee Olives, Inc. in an Iowa district court (trial court).
- Kolarik's lawsuit included claims for negligence, strict liability, and breach of express and implied warranty.
- The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to dismiss all claims.
- The district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, dismissing Kolarik's entire case.
- Kolarik (appellant) appealed the adverse summary judgment to the Supreme Court of Iowa.
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Issue:
Does a wholesale seller of pimento-stuffed olives, which are processed to remove pits, have a duty to warn consumers that the product may contain pits or pit fragments?
Opinions:
Majority - Carter, J.
Yes. A seller of processed foods like stuffed olives must recognize that consumers will reasonably expect the product to be free of pits and may be negligent for failing to provide a warning about the potential, unavoidable presence of pits or pit fragments. The court abandoned the rigid 'foreign-natural' test in favor of the 'reasonable expectation' test, which evaluates what a consumer would reasonably expect in the food as served or prepared. For processed foods intended to have natural components removed (like pits from olives or bones from chicken), a consumer's expectation is that they are safe to consume without encountering those components. Since the defendants' own quality control officer acknowledged that the mechanical pitting process is imperfect and that the presence of occasional pits is inevitable, a jury could reasonably find that the defendants breached their duty of reasonable care by not warning consumers of this known risk on the product's label.
Analysis:
This decision officially shifts Iowa's product liability law for food from the antiquated 'foreign-natural' test to the more modern and widely accepted 'reasonable expectation' test. This aligns Iowa with the Restatement (Third) of Torts and the majority of jurisdictions. The ruling's significance lies in extending potential liability for negligence to wholesalers and repackagers, not just manufacturers, for failure to warn about inherent but unexpected dangers in processed foods. Consequently, sellers who label and package food products must now consider adding warnings for residual natural components that their processing aims to, but cannot perfectly, eliminate.
