Drayton v. Jiffee Chemical Corp.

James Henderson was using a drain-unclogging product, given to his family by their landlady, when it severely burned his daughter Terri Drayton (plaintiff). Drayton and her mother sued Jiffee Chemical (defendant), the maker of liquid-plumr, alleging that was the product involved; the actual bottle was never produced at trial, but Henderson, Drayton's mother, and the landlady all testified without contradiction that the product was liquid-plumr. Jiffee argued the product was actually a competing, more caustic product called Mister Plumber, pointing to Henderson's testimony that he'd covered the drain with a towel after pouring (a step associated with Mister Plumber's odor warning, not liquid-plumr's odorless label) and to the severity and speed of the burns, arguing they were more consistent with Mister Plumber's harsher sulfuric-acid formula than liquid-plumr's milder sodium hydroxide.