On October 17, 2024, the Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed the exclusion of plaintiff’s medical causation expert and summary judgment for two major railroad carriers in an acute promyelocytic leukemia case filed in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Ohio. Plaintiff brought his action under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (“FELA”) alleging that the railroads negligently exposed him to diesel exhaust throughout his career and that this exposure had caused his leukemia. The railroads successfully argued that Plaintiff’s medical causation opinions were inadmissible under Ohio’s Evid.R. 702 and applicable Daubert standard. As to the issue of general causation, the Eighth District Court of Appeals determined that “[t]he trial court did not err in excluding the expert testimony where the methodology in reaching the expert opinion was found to be unreliable and where the opinion was not supported by any scientific literature and the lack of support was not explained.” Without the requisite expert testimony, Plaintiff was unable to establish medical causation and “the trial court properly granted summary judgment” in favor of the railroads.
Attorneys Kevin Alexandersen and Holly Olarczuk-Smith are pleased with the outcome of this matter as the opinion can be used in other FELA cases in support of similar arguments.