October 16, 2018
The U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida recently issued an order and opinion excluding the testimony of plaintiff’s expert, Dr. Richard Kradin, in the matter of Doolin v. Ford Motor Co., Case No. 3:16-cv-778-J-34PDB, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163678, 2018 WL 4599712 (M.D. Fla. Sep. 25, 2018). In this matter, the decedent, Richard Doolin, was diagnosed with pericardial mesothelioma from visiting his father’s automotive shop and from his own automotive work. Dr. Kradin was offered by plaintiff’s counsel to testify concerning specific causation. Dr. Kradin was expected to testify that because mesothelioma is most often caused by exposure to asbestos, then the exposure to defendant’s products must have caused plaintiff’s mesothelioma. Dr. Kradin ignored the widely recognized dose-response relationship which requires a calculation of an individual’s dose of asbestos exposure to link the mesothelioma diagnosis. The defendants filed a motion to exclude Dr. Kradin’s opinion. The Court found Dr. Kradin’s reasoning consisted of “backwards logic” and therefore was not a reliable basis for a specific causation opinion. Dr. Kradin failed to provide any studies linking the pericardial mesothelioma to decedent’s asbestos exposure and ignored decedent’s medical history which included radiation treatment for lymphoma. Dr. Kradin’s opinions were precluded. This Court continued to promote the rejection of an expert opinion based on general causation to attempt to correlate a specific asbestos exposure to an asbestos-related disease.