## Facts

- A father bought a can of salmon from a retail food dealer for consumption in his family home.
- The salmon allegedly contained sharp metal pieces.
- The father’s fifteen-year-old daughter ate the salmon and suffered injuries to her teeth and mouth.
- The father sued for his out-of-pocket losses (including medical expenses), and the daughter sued for personal injuries.
- Both claims were pleaded on breach of implied warranties of fitness and wholesomeness in the sale of food under New York Personal Property Law § 96.

## Issues

1. Whether the implied warranties of fitness and wholesomeness in the retail sale of food extend to an injured household member who was not the purchaser.
2. Whether lack of contractual privity between the injured child and the retailer bars the child’s warranty claim.

## Decision

- The New York Court of Appeals reversed the intermediate appellate ruling that dismissed the child’s claim for lack of privity.
- The court held that the implied warranty accompanying the retail sale of food extends to members of the purchaser’s household who are expected to consume the food.
- The trial-level judgment for the infant plaintiff on the warranty theory was reinstated.
- The father’s existing judgment for his expenses was left undisturbed.

## Legal Principles

- In retail food sales, implied warranties of fitness and wholesomeness are not limited to the contracting purchaser when the seller should expect the food to be consumed by the purchaser’s household.
- Privity of contract is not required for a household member’s warranty claim arising from contaminated or unwholesome food purchased for family consumption.
- Prior strict privity limits on warranty recovery in food cases were rejected to the extent they barred foreseeable household consumers from enforcing the statutory implied warranty.

## Conclusion

The court treated the statutory implied warranty in food sales as protecting the household consumers for whose use the food is purchased, holding that an injured child may recover against the retailer for breach of implied warranty despite not being the buyer.


Greenberg v. Lorenz, 9 N.Y.2d 195, 173 N.E.2d 773 (N.Y. 1961)