Opinion ID: 70781
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Exposure to PCBs, Furans and Dioxins

Text: Although finding there is a genuine dispute whether Mr. Joiner was exposed to PCBs, the trial court found insufficient evidence that Mr. Joiner was exposed to furans or dioxins. The trial court dismissed Mr. Joiner's assertion that furans were created from PCBs in fire conditions because, although there was evidence of fire and other hot conditions, Mr. Joiner failed to show that conditions reached the requisite temperatures in this case (i.e., fit). Joiner v. General Electric Co., 864 F.Supp. 1310, 1317-18 (N.D.Ga.1994). The majority concludes the trial court committed reversible error by overlooking a minor passage from Dr. Teitelbaum's affidavit that provides specific evidence of fit: (1) the transformer's were smoking which requires temperatures of 700 to 800 degrees centigrade and (2) some transformers were struck by lightning which inevitably produces furans. The majority further suggests the trial court's ruling was erroneous because the defendants presented no evidence that the fires did not reach the requisite temperature. However, I disagree and I am not prepared to reverse the trial court on this issue because it is Mr. Joiner who has the burden of proving admissibility. Daubert at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2796 n. 10 (citing Bourjaily v. United States, 483 U.S. 171, 175-76, 107 S.Ct. 2775, 2778-79, 97 L.Ed.2d 144 (1987)); see also, Deimer, 58 F.3d at 345 (The expert had the responsibility to apply his analysis to the facts of this case.); American & Foreign Insurance Co., 45 F.3d at 139 ([T]he burden is on the [party seeking to admit expert testimony] to persuade this court that the testing was reliable and supported by raw data.). In making its ruling, the trial court sifted through such overwhelming evidence that it inevitably overlooked the passage from Dr. Teitelbaum's affidavit. More importantly, Mr. Joiner himself failed to disclose this passage notwithstanding his burden of proving admissibility or his knowing the case hinged on such evidence. Mr. Joiner failed to cite this or any similar passage on appeal. Indeed, this passage would have been forever lost had it not been for the diligent, searching eye of the majority. I am not prepared to place such a burden on either the trial or appellate courts. Similarly, I am not prepared to encourage litigants to inundate the courts with raw data and force the courts to process the data to determine why certain evidence is admissible. The litigants and their experts should know their evidence better than anyone—they should be their own advocates for its admission. I would also affirm the trial court on the issue of exposure to dioxins. The trial court properly discarded treatise excerpts as inadmissible hearsay because they were not offered through expert testimony. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in discarding testimony that dioxins can be formed from Pyranol because there was no evidence that Pyranol was or may have been present in this case (i.e., fit). Nor did the trial court abuse its discretion in excluding testimony that burning PCBs produces dioxins where the testimony did not reference any supporting studies (i.e., grounded in science). Finally, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that expert testimony concerning a specific incident has little probative value given the evidentiary deficits in this case. Joiner at 1319.