Plaintiff Lori Lynne Hoff brought a product liability claim against Defendants Capital Brands, LLC and NutriBullet, LLC under the New Jersey Products Liability Act, alleging a design defect in the NutriBullet 600 blender.
On February 17, 2020, Hoff used the blender to make celery juice, combining water and chopped celery below the max fill line. After sealing and inserting the blender cup into the power base, the unit began operating. As Hoff reached out to stop the machine around the ten-second mark, the blender exploded. The contents splashed onto her face and eyes, and she suffered a cut to her pinky finger, dizziness, and a temporary loss of vision. She later received emergency room treatment.
Hoff’s expert, Derek King, inspected the blender and concluded that over pressurization caused the cup to separate from the base. Defendants later filed a motion to exclude Hoff’s expert.
Mechanical Engineering Expert Witness
Derek A. King holds an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Ohio University, and a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a registered professional engineer in the State of California.
From 2009 to the present, he has worked as an engineer for Berkeley Engineering and Research in the areas of failure analysis, design, and risk assessment of consumer and industrial equipment, including consumer blenders.
Discussion by the Court
The Court addressed Defendants’ motion to exclude Plaintiff’s expert, Derek King, under Daubert and Federal Rule of Evidence 702. Defendants argued that King’s opinions were both irrelevant and unreliable. Because Plaintiff’s design defect claim hinged on King’s expert testimony, Defendants also moved for summary judgment, asserting that without admissible expert evidence, Plaintiff could not prove causation or a feasible alternative design.
Plaintiff’s Claim Required a Reasonable Alternative Design
Under the New Jersey Products Liability Act (NJPLA), a design defect claim requires the plaintiff to show that a practical and safer alternative design existed. Plaintiffs often rely on expert testimony to establish this point. King proposed two such alternatives: an automatic timer and a pressure relief mechanism. The Court reviewed whether these opinions met the requirements of relevance and reliability under Daubert.
Automatic Timer Deemed Irrelevant
King suggested that a one-minute automatic timer could have mitigated pressure buildup in cases involving excessive run time. However, Plaintiff testified that she ran the blender for fewer than ten seconds, far below the threshold King’s design targeted. King himself acknowledged that a timer would not have been necessary in Hoff’s situation. The Court therefore found that King’s timer proposal did not “fit” the facts of the case and would not assist the jury in understanding what happened. As such, the Court ruled the timer design irrelevant.
Pressure Relief Design Found Unreliable and Unhelpful
King also proposed that a pressure relief mechanism, such as a blowout plug or pressure valve, could have prevented the incident. He based this design on general engineering knowledge and prior use of similar mechanisms in pressure cookers. However, King did not test this design in a blender or with carbonated ingredients, which were suspected to be the cause of the overpressurization. Defendants argued, and the Court agreed, that the lack of testing made the methodology weak and speculative.
Further, the Court emphasized that none of King’s identified causes of overpressurization, heat, carbonation, or prolonged blending, were clearly present in the incident. His opinion asked the jury to consider hypotheticals and possibilities beyond the scope of the actual case. The Court concluded that this opinion would confuse rather than clarify the central issues and thus failed the relevancy (fit) requirement under Daubert.
Held
The Court granted the Defendant’s motion to exclude the testimony of Derek King.
Key Takeaway:
Expert testimony must be both reliable and directly relevant to the facts of the case. In Hoff v. Capital Brands, the Court excluded Plaintiff’s expert, Derek King, finding that his proposed alternative designs, an automatic timer and a pressure relief mechanism, either didn’t apply to the incident or lacked testing to support their feasibility. Without admissible expert evidence, Plaintiff could not proceed with her design defect claim under the New Jersey Products Liability Act.
Case Details
| Case Caption: | Hoff v. Capital Brands |
| Docket Number: | 3:21cv16215 |
| Court Name: | United States District Court, New Jersey |
| Order Date: | June 30, 2025 |
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