Family Sues After Man Dies in Taco-Eating Contest

A teenager whose father died in a taco-eating contest is taking the owners of the Fresno Grizzlies to court. A lawsuit filed Monday by 18-year-old Marshall Hutchings alleges that organizers didn't properly inform participants of the risks of the Aug. 13, 2019 contest at Chukchansi Park, home of the minor league baseball team, the Fresno Bee reports. Dana Hutchings, 41, collapsed several minutes into the contest and the coroner determined that he had choked to death on tacos. Martin Taleisnik, Marshall Hutchings' attorney, says professional competitive eaters train before events, but organizers failed to fully inform Dana Hutchings of the risks to amateur eaters. "The conductors of this event should have made the risks known to the competitors and taken steps to protect them," he says. (More eating contest stories.)