An Arvada woman won $60,000 from Albertsons and Fresh Express Wednesday for serving a spinach salad with a rock in it.

A six-person jury found the supermarket and supplier guilty of negligence and selling a defective product.

"I'm very happy," said attorney Jeffrey Gard of Sanderson and Associates, who represented the plaintiff, Patty Corbetta. "It exceeded by far my expectations and by far, what the defendant expected as well."

Richard Rediger, who represents the companies, said he did not want to talk about the case Wednesday. "We're considering our options," he said.

Corbetta, who works as a geologist at the Denver Tech Center, bought a spinach salad from the salad bar at the Greenwood Village Albertsons on June 20, 1996.

"She took it back to her office and bites down into a quarter-inch rock, injuring several teeth," Gard said.

"She contacted the store (by phone) and she wasn't treated the way a customer was supposed to be treated. They said it couldn't have happened."

Corbetta then went to her dentist, Dr. Jeffrey Lodl, who found she had damaged four back teeth, two seriously.

She wound up visiting her dentist a dozen times over two years, and getting two crowns and a root canal to correct the damage. Gard said it cost $2,200.

"The defendants accused us of bringing this case because they had deep pockets," Gard said. "I brought it because nobody would listen to my client. Obviously, the jury did."

He also said that Albertsons and Fresh Express argued Corbetta was negligent and contributed to her own injury because she failed to see the rock.

Tillie Fong - Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer