> "there must have been some laxity in inspection of the vats, or some kind of problem in the construction and/or materials (which wouldn't fall on the brewery,

> "there must have been some laxity in inspection of the vats, or some kind of problem in the construction and/or materials (which wouldn't fall on the brewery, most likely, but on the construction/engineering firm they used to construct the vats)." Well they probably didn't have sufficient construction/engineering knowledge back then to make such a determination of negligence anyway. Conceivably, the vat could have been constructed according to the standard for that time.