Criminal Law Keyed to Dressler
General Electric Co. v. Joiner
Facts
Plaintiff has worked as an electrician since 1973. This required Plaintiff to work around transformers, and the dielectric fluid used as a coolant got into his eyes and mouth, and stuck to his arms and hands. In 1983, the city discovered that the fluid in some of its transformers contained PCBs, which are hazardous to the health of humans. In 1991, Plaintiff was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. He sued Defendant because they manufactured transformer and dielectric fluid. Plaintiff had been a smoker for eight years and there was a history of lung cancer in his family. Plaintiff alleged that his exposure to PCBs “promoted” his cancer; had it not been for his exposure to these substances, his cancer would not have developed for many years, if at all. Defendant removed the case to federal court and then moved for summary judgment. Defendant claimed there was no evidence that Plaintiff suffered significant exposure to PCBs and that there was no admissible scientific evidence that PCBs promoted Plaintiff’s cancer. The district court ruled that there was a genuine issue of material fact, but there was no evidence that Plaintiff had been exposed to PCBs, and the testimony of Plaintiff’s experts failed to show that there was a link between exposure to PCB and small cell cancer. The case was dismissed. The court of appeals reversed. The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari.
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