Cassiday
The maker of Mountain Dew soft drinks is moving to change attorneys as it defends itself from a suit brought by a man who claims he got a mouthful of mouse along with his soda.
PepsiCo Inc. and Pepsi Cola General Bottlers, Inc. filed a move to substitute attorneys Feb. 17.
It is asking that the firm of Cassiday Schade LLP of Naperville substitute the firm of Swanson Martin & Bell LLP of Chicago.
Madison County Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth will hear the motion Friday at 9 a.m.
The action marks the first life in the case since a case management order was entered in November 2010.
Plaintiff Ronald Ball filed suit against the Pepsi defendants two years ago.
He claimed that after buying a can of Mountain Dew at a vending machine at work, he began to drink it only to spit out the soda, finding a dead mouse within.
The plaintiff then alleges he sent the mouse in a Mason jar to Pepsi which then allegedly destroyed the mouse's body.
Ball's suit also included the owners of the Shop n'Save grocery chain where the soda was purchased for the machine.
However, those defendants were dropped from the suit.
Pepsi had at one point sought summary judgment in the case.
It cited the testimony of a scientist who testified that if the mouse had truly been in the soda since its bottling, its body would have dissolved into a "jelly-like substance."
Attorney Steven Danekas of the Swanson firm also withdrew on Feb. 17.
Tom Keefe Jr. and Samantha Unsell represent Ball.
The case is Madison case number 09-L-440.