Calhoun v. Yamaha Motor Corp.

Natalie Calhoun died after crashing a rented jet ski into a boat while apparently frozen in fear rather than releasing its squeeze-finger throttle; her parents (plaintiffs) sued Yamaha (defendant) for design defect, offering three experts — a psychologist with an untested theory about fist-clenching under stress, a marine-safety expert with no engineering background or supporting data, and a marine engineer who had never actually driven a jet ski and had run no tests on alternative throttle designs. The district court excluded all three as unreliable, the jury found for Yamaha, and the Calhouns appealed.