Cologne (dpa / lnw) – Because he kept a caustic agent in a soda bottle, a shopkeeper has to be held responsible for the serious poisoning of a friend. That was decided by the district court in Cologne and communicated on Thursday (Az.: 12 O 459/19).
The shopkeeper’s friend found the bottle in the fridge, poured himself a glass and drank it down in one gulp. The cleaning agent, an ammonia solution called ammonia, which the owner uses to clean circuit boards, burned his esophagus and stomach.
The friend sued the owner of the shop workshop for 18,750 euros in damages and all the damage he suffered. The shop owner denied any liability: he hid the bottle behind the sofa in his workshop. The intern discovered them there and put them in the fridge without his knowledge.
In addition, his friend has no place in the fridge behind the counter. The regional court saw it differently: the owner of the shop workshop had violated his duty to ensure traffic safety. He should have taken precautions to prevent third parties from drinking the chemical. Hiding behind the sofa is not sufficient protection.
After hearing a witness, the court assumed that the shopkeeper’s friend could very well help himself from the refrigerator. However, the victim was attested to be a minor complicity: the plaintiff should not have simply drunk the colorless, non-sparkling liquid from the already opened glass bottle without checking it, despite the lemonade label.
