Nester
Unsell
Attorney Michael Nester and the law firm of Donovan Rose Nester in Belleville was hired on Wednesday by PepsiCo to take on a case in which a man is suing the company with claims that he found a mouse in a can of Mountain Dew.
The law firm of Cassiday Schade withdrew its representation of Pepsi on Jan. 18.
In the lawsuit filed in Madison County in 2009, plaintiff Ronald Ball claims that after opening and beginning to drink a soda he bought from a vending machine at work in 2008, he tasted something foul. He claims that when he spit out the soda, a mouse came out.
PepsiCo, which was supposed to answer Ball's second amended complaint on Jan. 11, was granted a two-week extension on Jan. 17 by Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth.
The company has said that the mouse body would have transformed into a jelly-like substance had it been in the soda for as long as Ball alleges it was.
He is seeking damages in excess of $50,000.
Samantha Unsell represents Ball.
The case is Madison Case number 09-L-440.