Packaging Expert’s Testimony on Compression Failure Limited
Posted on August 27, 2025 by Expert Witness Profiler
Plaintiff Tricia McFee asserted a negligence claim against Defendant BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc. (“BJ’s”) under New York law, arising from a slip-and-fall accident in the bottled water display area on August 20, 2020, while she was at a BJ’s club in Brooklyn, New York.
Defendant filed a motion to exclude the testimony of Sterling Anthony, Plaintiff’s liability expert.
Packaging Expert Witness
Sterling Anthony is a certified packaging professional with over fifty years of experience. Anthony has a bachelor’s degree in packaging engineering from Michigan State University, a master’s degree in marketing and finance from Roosevelt University and has taken doctrinal courses in international marketing and logistics from Michigan State University.
He has published over two hundred articles in various trade journals related to marketing, packaging, and logistics, and has presented in “dozens” of seminars and conferences in the United States and abroad. Anthony has testified as a marketing, packaging, and logistics expert in depositions or at trials at least nineteen times since 2012.
Discussion by the Court
Anthony opined that BJ’s knew or should have known that (1) “a slip-and-fall hazard was inherent to its bottled-water section”; (2) “compression is a force that’s inherent to palletized bottled water”; (3) “leakage from just one bottle will spread across a wide area of [the] floor”; (4) “it owes a duty to its invitees to maintain its premises in a safe condition, including against the hazard of slip-and-fall[s]”; (5) “scheduled walkthroughs were necessary, but not sufficient, as a safeguard against slip-and-fall[s] in the bottled-water section”; (6) “there are measures that can be taken to reduce the risk of slip-and-fall in the bottled-water section”; and (7) “it owed its invitees a duty to warn concerning the hazard of slip-and-fall in its bottle-water section.”
Qualifications
Defendant argued that Anthony is unqualified because he “lacked the scientific, technical or other specialized knowledge to opine on the liability issues relevant” to Plaintiff’s slip-and-fall.
Based on Anthony’s significant experience in packaging engineering, the Court found that Anthony has the “knowledge, skill, experience, training, [and] education” required by Rule 702 to offer opinions in this case relating to the packaging of palletized water bottles and the compression caused by their manner of packaging.
However, Anthony did not appear to have experience or training in shoe design and products. Because he lacked the qualifications or experience necessary to offer opinions regarding Plaintiff’s shoes, the Court excluded Anthony’s report and proposed testimony regarding whether Plaintiff’s shoes contributed to her fall.
Reliability and Relevance
First, Defendant argued that “Anthony failed to perform any testing or analysis of any kind” and that “his rudimentary ‘measurements’ of the unrelated Wellsley Farms water bottles were simply incorrect.”
Second, Defendant argued that Anthony’s report and findings are unreliable because he “has made no showing whatsoever how his experience led to his conclusions, why that experience is a sufficient basis for his opinions, how that experience has been reliably applied to the facts or whether he performed any measurements or compression testing of any kind.”
The Court excluded the portions of Anthony’s report and proposed testimony addressing whether Plaintiff’s injuries were caused by the compression failure of water bottles at BJ’s because they are not “based on sufficient facts or data” and did not “reflect a reliable application of the principles and methods to the facts of the case.” As Defendant argued, Anthony’s primary basis for concluding that compression failure led to a leak from the palletized water bottles was his analysis of a package of Wellsley Farms water from a different BJ’s club. It is undisputed that Plaintiff fell in front of the Poland Springs water display, and that the Wellsley Farms and Poland Spring waters were displayed separately.
Probative Value and Prejudice
Defendant argued that the Court should preclude Anthony’s testimony under Rule 403 because Anthony’s opinions have no probative value and would be prejudicial.
Anthony’s report and proposed testimony — specifically, the discussions of the general risks of compression failure in bottled water packaging — is not unduly prejudicial or confusing because knowledge of bottled-water packaging may be probative of the source of the water on which Plaintiff slipped.
Accordingly, the Court admitted only the portions of Anthony’s report and proposed testimony discussing the general risks of compression failure in bottled water packaging and excluded the portions regarding the causal relationship between the water condition at BJ’s and Plaintiff’s slip-and-fall.
Held
The Court granted in part and denied in part the Defendant’s motion to exclude the testimony of Sterling Anthony.
Key Takeaway:
Expert testimony is inadmissible under Rule 702 if it is not accompanied by a sufficient factual foundation. Anthony’s opinion regarding whether the water in which Plaintiff slipped resulted from compression failure is not reliable or relevant since it is based on his analysis of Wellsley Farms water and his own assertions that the Wellsley Farms water is representative of other water brands.
Case Details:
| Case Caption: | McFee V. BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc. |
| Docket Number: | 1:21cv3087 |
| Court Name: | United States District Court, New York Eastern |
| Order Date: | August 25, 2025 |
