Grady v. Frito-Lay, Inc.

Carl Grady (plaintiff) suffered an esophageal tear while eating Doritos brand tortilla chips. Grady filed suit against Frito-Lay, Inc. (defendant), alleging that Doritos chips were unsafe and defective because when broken, the chips became hard, sharp fragments capable of lacerating the esophagus. Grady pursued claims of negligence, strict liability, and breach of warranty. At trial, Frito-Lay filed a motion for summary judgment. In opposition, Grady filed a pair of reports from expert witnesses, one of which was prepared by Dr. Charles Beroes. Dr. Beroes was a professor of chemical engineering whose report stated that Doritos had hidden-hazardous physical strength and shape properties. Dr. Beroes described tests he had performed on the chips, including one in which Beroes pressed the tip of a Dorito down, calculated the force needed to break a Dorito, and converted the force into pounds. In another test, Dr. Beroes had wetted a Dorito with saliva by holding the Dorito in his mouth for 15, 30, 45, or 60 seconds, and Beroes concluded that even after 60 seconds, the chip had not softened enough to prevent possible esophageal laceration. The trial court excluded Beroes’s testimony, determining that Beroes’s findings were “akin to junk science” and did not meet the Frye test for admissibility. The trial court also granted the motion to dismiss the suit. Grady appealed, the superior court reversed the trial court, and this appeal then followed, considering only whether the trial court correctly excluded Dr. Beroes’s testimony.