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Mealey's Daubert

April 13, 2023
California Court Rejects Petitions Challenging Expert’s Talc-Mesothelioma Opinions

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court on April 12 denied two petitions from asbestos-talc defendants seeking review of the admission of expert testimony regarding fibrous talc as a cause of mesothelioma, an opinion one of the parties called “preposterous.”
April 13, 2023
10th Circuit Affirms Nurse’s Drug Conviction, No Error In Expert Admission

DENVER — The conviction of a former nurse convicted of diverting opioids was upheld by the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which found that the lower court did not err in denying a motion to exclude an expert who testified on the results of a drug test on the nurse’s hair.
April 13, 2023
Smithfield Foods Settles Pork Price-Fixing Claims For $75 Million

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota granted final approval to a $75 million settlement between a class of consumer indirect purchaser plaintiffs (consumer IPPs) and Smithfield Foods Inc., one of the defendants in a multidistrict litigation accusing various pork suppliers of conspiring to stabilize and increase the price of pork.
April 12, 2023
Boston University Granted Summary Judgment In Pandemic Closure Class Suit

BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts granted summary judgment to the trustees of Boston University (BU) in a putative class complaint by students who sued after in-person classes transitioned to online-only in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, finding that school was entitled to the impossibility defense as a matter of law.
April 12, 2023
Treating Physician Doesn’t Meet Admissibility Standards In Injury Case, Judge Says

NEW YORK — An expert retained by a woman who claims that she was injured when she fell inside a bank is inadmissible under federal standards, a New York federal judge ruled (Rachel Bell v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 20-2468, S.D. N.Y., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59378).
April 12, 2023
Insured’s Expert Testimony Is Curtailed In Homeowner’s Coverage Dispute

HOUSTON — A Texas federal judge has partially granted and partially denied a motion to exclude an insured’s expert in an insurance coverage dispute for damage caused by a storm after finding that certain of the expert’s opinions aren’t admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
April 06, 2023
Louisiana Panel Affirms Award In Crash Suit, Finds No Error In Trial Court Rulings

SHREVEPORT, La. — A Louisiana trial court did not err in denying an “emergency” Daubert hearing requested by a woman three days into trial for injuries sustained in a car accident, a state appeals court ruled April 5, also finding no error in other rulings brought up on appeal and affirming the judgment.
April 06, 2023
10th Circuit: Firearm, Toolmark Testimony Correctly Admitted In Criminal Case

DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a conviction of a man for being in possession of ammunition as a felon after finding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing expert testimony from a firearm and toolmark examiner.
April 06, 2023
Federal Magistrate Judge Limits Toxicologist’s Testimony In Cruise Injury Case

MIAMI — A toxicology expert retained by Carnival Corp. can testify on a woman’s blood-alcohol concentration at the time of a fall but cannot opine on whether intoxication contributed to the accident, a Florida federal magistrate judge ruled in a personal injury suit.
April 05, 2023
Justice Thomas Rejects Stay Of 11th Circuit Mandate In Care Home Fraud Case

WASHINGTON, D.C.— U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on April 4 denied an application to stay the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ mandate pending a decision on a man’s upcoming petition for a writ of certiorari of the 11th Circuit’s ruling that a district court did not err in admitting expert opinion testimony against the man convicted for his role in a $37 million health care fraud scheme that began in 1998 and involved bribing physicians to have patients entered into a network of assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities that he owned.
April 04, 2023
Judge Admits Experts Over ‘Every Exposure’ Asbestos Causation Concerns

SAN FRANCISCO — Expert opinions that mesothelioma is a dose-response disease and that each exposure contributes to the total dose of exposure do not constitute inadmissible testimony that every exposure leads to disease, and general causation testimony, while perhaps well known to the parties, will assist a layperson jury, a federal judge in California said in admitting the opinions.
April 04, 2023
Judge Admits 2 Experts’ Causation Opinions Over ‘Every Exposure’ Challenges

NEW ORLEANS — Two experts’ causation opinions go beyond the theory that every exposure to asbestos causes disease by taking into consideration the frequency and nature of the exposures and are admissible, a federal judge in Louisiana said in denying a motion to exclude.
April 03, 2023
Judge Nixes Deepwater Horizon Case On Causation Grounds, Says Expert ‘Unreliable’

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana dismissed personal injury claims against BP Exploration & Production Inc. related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, ruling that the plaintiff’s expert’s report was “unreliable” and, therefore, general causation could not be established.
March 31, 2023
Woman’s Rebuttal Witness Allowed In Case Alleging Injury While On Cruise

MIAMI — A cruise line failed to convince a federal magistrate judge in Florida to exclude a woman’s rebuttal expert witness who says that the lifeboat she was aboard when she was injured was traveling at an unreasonable speed as it headed back to a cruise ship.
March 30, 2023
Judge Admits Only General Causation Opinions; Ford Escapes Asbestos Case

SALT LAKE CITY — Two experts’ opinions on general causation in an automotive friction products asbestos case would assist a jury and are admissible against three defendants, but the exclusion of one expert’s specific causation testimony leaves the plaintiff with nothing on which to prevent summary judgment in favor of Ford Motor Co., a federal judge in Utah said.
March 29, 2023
11th Circuit Affirms Ruling That Nixed Expert Testimony And Dismissed Cancer Case

ATLANTA — In an unpublished opinion, a panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 28 affirmed a lower court’s decision in a cancer victim’s groundwater contamination lawsuit against Raytheon Technologies Corp. and held that a lower court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded the plaintiffs’ causation experts’ testimony and, therefore, the case was properly dismissed.
March 28, 2023
Pa. Court Says Jury Decides Expert’s Credibility, Reinstates FELA Action

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Where an expert is willing to testify regarding a link between low-level exposures to asbestos and other alleged toxins and disease, it is the jury’s and not the judge’s place to determine the credibility of that testimony, a Pennsylvania appeals court said in reversing summary judgment in a case alleging exposure to, among other things, asbestos.
March 24, 2023
Product Expiration, Origin Issues Lead To Exclusion Of Cleaning Agent Expert

MINNEAPOLIS — Because an expert performed testing on a product without verifiable origin or expiration date, his opinion lacks a factual foundation, a federal judge in Minnesota said March 23 in excluding his testimony on a product alleged to have sickened housekeepers in the health care setting.
March 24, 2023
Insurer’s Expert Is Only Permitted To Testify On Insurance Industry Standards

DENVER — A Colorado federal judge determined that an expert offered by a homeowners insurer in a breach of contract and bad faith suit seeking coverage for fire damages can testify only on insurance industry standards and whether the insurer’s actions were consistent with insurance industry standards.
March 23, 2023
Google Must Give Expert Confidential Documents In Location-Tracking Suit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A group of plaintiffs suing Google LLC for privacy violations related to the purported surreptitious gathering of their location information data prevailed in a discovery matter, with a California federal magistrate judge ordering the technology giant to turn over a collection of confidential documents to the plaintiffs’ expert witness.
March 22, 2023
Auto Insurers’ Challenge To Experts Rejected; Classes Certified In Underpayment Suits

NEW YORK — After rejecting a group of auto insurers’ motion to exclude the opinions of three plaintiffs’ experts for the purposes of class certification in consolidated class actions alleging that the insurers systemically paid them less than the actual cash value of vehicles that were declared to be a total loss, a federal judge in New York granted the plaintiffs’ motion to certify two classes.
March 22, 2023
County: Argument Properly Raised For Judge To Reconsider FHA Suit Ruling

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois should alter or amend his ruling excluding the testimony of a county’s expert in a Fair Housing Act (FHA) discriminatory lending lawsuit against Wells Fargo & Co. and several of its affiliates and granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants because the judge committed several errors that when viewed “individually or taken together,” show that his reasoning for excluding the testimony was erroneous under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., the county argues in a brief in reply to its motion to alter or amend.
March 21, 2023
Miss. High Court Finds Expert Unqualified, Reverses Judgment Denial In Med-Mal Case

JACKSON, Miss. — Ruling that a trial court abused its discretion in admitting the expert testimony of a physician whose qualifications were not submitted to the court, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s ruling denying summary judgment to a hospital in a medical malpractice case and rendered judgment in favor of the hospital.
March 16, 2023
Judge Admits Experts, Says Hypotheticals Match Case’s Allegations

NEW ORLEANS — Two experts relied on a man’s firsthand accounts of work with a defendant’s turbines, and the resulting asbestos exposure and the hypotheticals they considered are relevant to the case, a federal judge in Louisiana said in admitting the pair.
March 14, 2023
Motion To Strike Testimony Of Court-Appointed Code Expert Denied In Copyright Case

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California denied a motion to exclude the report of the court-appointed source code expert in a copyright infringement and trade secret dispute, noting that the plaintiffs did not challenge the expert’s qualifications and, in fact, initially proposed him as an expert and rejecting their argument that his report is biased.