Edward Douglass White

“ Deselms sued the Waters-Pierce Oil Company to recover damages for the death of his wife and two young children, resulting from an alleged explosion of a highly inflammable and explosive substance, consisting of a mixture of coal oil and gasolene. The mixture, it was alleged, had been bought by Deselms as coal oil from dealers who supposed it be such, although their vendor, the oil company, knew the dangerous character of the article and yet had sold it as coal oil. ”

“ A few days after the sale to Powers & Deselms,-on a Sunday morning,-the plaintiff, Deselms, who was a clerk for the firm, bought one gallon of the mixture, supposing it to be coal oil, and took the same to his home in a 2-gallon can. On the afternoon of the same day Deselms left Orlando for a brief absence. His wife and two children-one a boy of four, the other a girl of two years-were left at home. The children were bright and active and were in perfect health. ”

“ The east room was used as a kitchen, the cooking stove being near the east wall. The west room was the general living and sleeping room. In it was a heating stove composed of a cylindrical firebox and a cylindrical plate or body with a door in the side. This stove stood on the east side of the room and it and the kitchen stove were connected with a brick flue in the partition wall between the two rooms.
The first use made of the gallon of oil bought by Deselms was on Tuesday evening, when Mrs. Emory filled a new lamp from the contents of the can, and then lit the lamp. ”

“ At any rate, we will have to watch the matter, and take chances on selling all the P. W. oil in P. W. oil storage tank, trusting that the same will give good results.' On receipt of these instructions the agent at Guthrie, without any renewed inspection of the oil in the tank containing the mixture of gasolene and coal oil, sold the same to merchants in his territory as coal oil. On January 28, 1903, three barrels of the mixture were so sold to Powers & Deselms, retail grocers at Orlando, Oklahoma. ”

“ But the distinction between the principle which was there controlling and the one which is here applicable was pointed out in the opinion of the court in that case, where it was said (p. 204) :
'Pharmacists or apothecaries who compound or sell medicines, if they carelessly label a poison as a harmless medicine, and send it so labeled into the market, are liable to all persons who, without fault on their part, are injured by using it as such medicine, in consequence of the false label ”

“ One of the instructions, however, was framed upon the theory that the case was controlled by the act of 1895, providing for the inspection of oils, etc., because of the alleged void character of the act of 1899,-a contention which we have also previously adversely disposed of in considering that subject. ”