Bolar v. Maxwell Hardware Co.

Action for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff, a minor, as the result of explosion of a toy cannon.

Plaintiff, a fifteen year old normal boy, in the last term of junior high school, purchased thirty-five cents worth of black gunpowder at defendant’s hardware store in Oakland, California, stating after purchase that he intended to use it in a toy cannon, although the evidence is in conflict as to whether he explained to the salesman that it was to be a cannon of his own construction. He then secured a piece of heavy pipe about fifteen inches long and two inches in diameter, in which he…