Steagall v. DOT MANUFACTURING CORPORATION

Plaintiff, Thomas Lee Steagall, a cook employed by American Baptist Theological Seminary to prepare meals for the school cafeteria, suffered severe burns to the upper portions of his body when he accidentally turned over a bottle of drain solvent which had been left uncapped on an upper shelf. Plaintiff was reaching for a can of vegetables when he accidentally turned the bottle over, spilling a part of its contents over the upper part of his body.

Plaintiff sued Dot Manufacturing Corporation, from whom the liquid drain solvent had been purchased, alleging common law negligence in the first…