Stephen

Cheryl Lynn Stephen was injured in a single-vehicle accident when the tread separated from the right rear tire of her Ford Explorer. The Explorer was towed to a scrap yard, where an insurance adjuster took a few snapshots of the vehicle to establish that it was a total loss, and where Stephen’s boyfriend took a few Polaroid pictures of the car when he and Stephen went to collect her personal belongings. The Explorer was then sold for scrap and the tire discarded. About a year later, Stephen sued Ford Motor Company and Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire, LLC for damages, alleging the tire and the vehicle were defectively designed. At trial, the court excluded the testimony of Stephen’s tire expert, substantially limited the testimony of her directional stability expert, then granted Ford’s and Firestone’s motions for nonsuit. Stephen appeals, challenging the evidentiary rulings and the nonsuits based on those rulings. We hold that expert testimony was necessary to establish Stephen’s claims against both Ford and Firestone, that the tire expert’s testimony was properly excluded because there was no foundation for his opinions or conclusions, and that the directional…