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been burst by the pressure exerted against even slightly imperfect bottles. In

addition to the mess of red (or even white) wine bursting all over, shards of glass

can go flying. I recommend throwing these corkscrews away immediately.

How serious is this problem of wine bottle breakage using cork ejectors? Jack Bandy, a

retired insurance attorney and corkscrew collector, spent a day at the law library in Los

Angeles looking for any legal cases dealing with breakage of bottles or personal injury

through using a cork ejector. Before going to the library he commented, "I'd be very

surprised if there weren't some product liability cases involving those things. Although

we never insured any makers/distributors of those ejectors, over the years we did

insure several bottle manufacturers, bottlers and stores for products liability. When

bottles broke, the bottle manufacturer, et al got sued. So, throwing those little cork

ejector devils into the mix, there has to be a few cases."

After researching state and federal appellate case reports, the indexes of American

Jurisprudence and several other major legal treatises, to his surprise Bandy found

nothing related to cork ejectors. However, he points out that these sources only report

cases, which have been appealed from lower court verdicts. So, this doesn't rule out the

possibility of cases that may have been tried, but never appealed, and, unfortunately,

there is no central database of such information presently. There is also the possibility

of insurance claims arising out of the use of these cork ejectors, but were settled out of

court without legal action. With regard to the general subject of bottle breakage, in

volume 10 of Trials (1965) under "Exploding Bottle Litigation," he found this entry:

The principal factual problem involved in a case concerning an exploding bottle is

the determination of the case of the explosion, fracture, or breaking of the

bottle. It is recognized that a beverage charged with carbonic acid gas exerts

pressure on the bottle in which it is confined…[it] is a potential bomb, and must

be viewed as such.