City Dairy 1/2 Pint

c. 1920s

One of the many things I've noticed during all my research is that suing companies for negligence didn't just become popular in the late 20th century. It was happening pretty frequently in the early 20th and even 19th century!

On August 24th, 1918, the City Dairy Company was sued by Benjamin Yankejowitz for $5,000 (equivalent to $101,671 today) after his wife allegedly sustained injuries from drinking milk from one of City Dairy's bottles that contained particles of glass which she purchased on September 1st, 1917. The Yankejowitz attorney alleges City Dairy was negligent in selling the bottle contaminated with the glass particles.

Sadly there wasn't a follow up on this case available. Now, I'm no legal expert, but I have dug up many of these milk bottles, and I've stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once...It takes a bit to chip these bottles over a hundred years later (they will easily crack from freezing groundwater). I can't imagine this case was ruled in favor of the Yankejowitz family.