Allred

Plaintiff’s complaint disclosed the following. The employers of Nye H. Allred (defendants Guy F. Atkinson Company, Columbia Service Company, and Mangla Dam Contractors) undertook in writing that, upon completion of a West Pakistan construction project on which Allred was employed, they would “reimburse” him for the cost of “ ‘Overseas packing’ and steamship freight,” in connection with the return of his family’s personal belongings to their home in the United States. The employers thereafter entered into a contract with defendant Bekins Wide World Service, Inc. (hereafter sometimes “Bekins”) for such “packing, preparation and shipment.” When Allred’s employment ended, over the family’s protest, Bekins, on or about July 31, 1968, packed their personal belongings in straw which was “visibly stained and rancid and smelled of animal urine.” Upon the family’s, and the goods’, arrival soon after in the United States, the members of the family developed a serious rash, itching sensation and skin irritation. Reasonable efforts to find the cause of the problem were fruitless until either July 1970 or November 1970. At that time it was learned that the cause was “the existence of…