Miley and Billy Ray were driving to a concert, and stopped to get gasoline and a soft drink. While Billy Ray was filling up the gas tank, Miley went into the store and picked up two 20-ounce glass bottles of "Tennessee Tea", a soft drink. While waiting to pay for the drinks, one of the 20-ounce glass bottles blew up, driving shards of glass into Miley's face. She had to have $3000 in medical care, and she had to cancel a concert at which she was to perform.
As a result, she lost $100,000 in performance fee income. The exploded bottle was analyzed, and there appeared to be no identifiable cause of why the bottle blew up, although several witnesses confirmed that it did blow up without any action by Miley or others. It was puzzling because the drinks had been sitting in the cooler for three days without any other problems noted. Which of the following is true?
A) The drink manufacturer will not be liable for the injury to Miley, or for her loss of income, because there is no identifiable negligence on the part of the drink manufacturer. While there may be speculation that the bottle was defective, without proof of that, it's not determinative for purposes of establishing liability.
B) The drink manufacturer will not be liable for the injury to Miley, or for her loss of income, unless it is reasonably foreseeable that the bottle could blow up while being held in a person's hand. While it is unfortunate that the bottle exploded, there is no direct evidence that the bottler had any role in the accident, and that must be considered.
C) The drink manufacturer will be liable for the injury to Miley, but not for her loss of income. Bottles of soft drinks ordinarily don't explode spontaneously, and the bottle had been sitting undisturbed in a cooler for three days. It can be reasonably inferred that the manufacturer negligently filled the bottle, because correctly filled bottles don't explode, because the bottle was exclusively within the control of the manufacturer/ bottler during the process of filling the bottle, and because there was no evidence of any action on the part of Miley that could have caused the explosion.
D) The drink manufacturer will be liable for the injury to Miley, and for her loss of income, because bottles of soft drinks ordinarily don't explode spontaneously, and the bottle had been sitting undisturbed in a cooler for three days. It can be reasonably inferred that the manufacturer negligently filled the bottle, because correctly filled bottles don't explode.