Schuster v. Steedley

PALMORE, Chief Justice.

The appellant Schuster’s wife purchased and gave to him on his birthday, September 1, 1960, an old British military rifle she had seen advertised in a newspaper by The Sut-cliffe Company for $9.95. Seven months later, on April 1, 1961, as the gun was being fired by a youngster under Schuster’s supervision, a part of the breech bolt blew off and one or more of the fragments struck the appellee Steedley in the right eye, resulting in loss of the eye.

Steedley sued Schuster, alleging in substance that the cause of the accident was Schuster’s negligence in loading the gun.…