Country:

Poland

Court:

The Polish Supreme Court, the judgement of 6 August 1981, OSN 1982/37, I CR 219/81.

Topics:

Liability of the manufacturer of a cake containing a pin - Liability for fault in manufacture - Res ipsa loquitur

Articles:

N/a - before the implementation of the Directive

Facts:

The claimant bought a fruit cake in the manufacturer's shop. A pin was present inside the cake and the claimant swallowed it. The pin had to be surgically removed from his throat.

Legal questions:

Should the producer of the cake be liable to the victim injured by a pin present inside the cake?

Decision:

The judgement was based upon Article 415 of the Civil Code (provision establishing general tortuous liability based upon fault). After having established the facts, the lower instance court had assumed that the pin must have been inside the cake. Having excluded all the other possibilities, such as the pin being for some reason left on the plate on which the cake was served, the court went on to hold that the person liable for the presence of the pin in the cake was the producer (no need to point to a particular employee of the producer). The Supreme Court confirmed the views of the District Court. The court used the concepts of res ipsa loquitur in order to facilitate the victim's tasks during the proceedings. The presence of the pin in the cake, held the Court, indicated fault in negligent preparation.

Comments:

The judgement evidences the tendency to facilitate the tasks of victims of defective products in the unavoidable fault-based regime. An interesting phenomenon, which could be observed in the judgement, is that the plaintiff - the person who was unfortunate enough to have swallowed the pin which then injured his throat - did not have to prove the fault of the manufacturer. The mere presence of the pin in the cake was held to have demonstrated the weaknesses in the production and supervision processes (Łętowska 1999: 99). The manufacturer did not succeed in defending himself against this res ipsa loquitur presumption, and this was so especially in the light of the statement of one of its employees, who pointed out to sugar used in production not being properly tested.