Kolarik v. Cory International Corp.
Supreme Court of Iowa
721 N.W.2d 159 (2006)
Kolarik (plaintiff) bit into an olive labeled "minced pimento stuffed," struck a pit, and broke a tooth. He sued the wholesalers and importers of the olives (defendants) for breach of express warranty, strict liability, breach of implied warranty of merchantability, and negligence. At trial, the pits had been removed by machine in Spain, but variation in olive size meant some pits or fragments could remain; federal regulations permitted up to 1.3 pit fragments per 100 olives, and the defendants argued that inspecting each olive individually in a bulk process was impractical. The defendants had only imported and repackaged the olives, not manufactured or pitted them. The trial court granted the defendants summary judgment on all claims, and Kolarik appealed.
Whether an express warranty must be read according to ordinary trade practice; whether a wholesaler uninvolved in a product's original manufacture is immune from strict-liability or implied-warranty claims based on a defect in the product's original manufacture or design; and whether a distributor of processed food can be liable in negligence for failing to warn about natural components consumers reasonably expect to have been removed.