2d Circuit Holds Daubert Applicable in Jones Act Cases

The Second Circuit has published an opinion upholding the exclusion of expert causation testimony in a Jones Act case. Plaintiff's decedent died from squamous cell carcinoma after working as a seaman on defendants' vessels. Plaintiff's expert blamed onboard exposure to benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. On appeal from the district court's decision excluding the expert's testimony and awarding summary judgment to defendants, the Second Circuit held:

1. that the burden of proof on causation was not shifted to defendant under the Pennsylvania Rule, "an oddity of admiralty law" which, where applicable, requires defendants to "show[] not merely that [their] fault might not have been one of the causes [of the injury], or that it probably was not, but that it could not have been," see The Pennsylvania, 86 U.S. (19 Wall.) 125, 136;
2. that Daubert applies in Jones Act proceedings, notwithstanding the Jones Act's relaxed burden of proof; and
3. that the district court permissibly excluded the expert's testimony as unreliable on the grounds that the expert failed to quantify the decedent's dose and failed to rule out decedent's smoking and alcohol consumption as causes of his cancer.

See Wills v. Amerada Hess Corp., No. 02-7913 (2d Cir. Aug. 11, 2004) (Jacobs & Sotomayor, JJ.).