Ruth
A case management conference is set in a suit filed against the maker of Mountain Dew by a man who claims he found a dead mouse in his soda.
The defendants in that suit, PepsiCo Inc. and its bottler, have moved for summary judgment, pointing to the opinion of an expert who believes that the mouse could not have been in the soda as long as the plaintiff claims.
The conference is set for 9 a.m. on July 28.
Plaintiff Ronald Ball claims he accidentally drank the mouse after he'd purchased a can of Mountain Dew from a vending machine at his work place.
After spitting the animal's body out, he eventually sent it to Pepsi. The mouse was not returned.
Ball claims the rodent made him sick and that Pepsi despoiled evidence.
His suit seeks at least $50,000 in damages.
A previous hearing on the summary judgment move in the case was moved by agreement of the parties.
In its move for summary judgment, the defendants present the opinion of an expert who performed a necropsy on the mouse's body. A necropsy is a form of autopsy used on animals.
In the expert's report, the scientist concludes the mouse could not have been in the can of soda when it was bottled because its body would have been dissolved by the soda's acids into a "jelly-like" form by the time Ball drank it in November 2009.
The mouse was allegedly intact when Ball encountered it.
Pepsi argues that the mouse must have gotten in the soda some other
way.
Madison County Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth presides.
Ball is represented by Tom Keefe Jr. and Samantha Unsell.
The case is Madison case number 09-L-440.