Opinion ID: 779092
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Expert Evidence Under Daubert

Text: 27 After the grant of defendant's motion for new trial and the transfer of the case to Judge Trager for further proceedings, defendant successfully filed a motion under Daubert to exclude plaintiffs' scientific and medical experts from testifying at trial. See Amorgianos, 137 F.Supp.2d at 160, 191. Plaintiffs argue that the district court's exclusion of the expert testimony was an abuse of discretion. 28 Specifically, plaintiffs contend that the district court overstepped its role in evaluating the expert evidence and that the district court imposed standards more stringent than those contemplated by the Supreme Court in Daubert. Claiming that Judge Trager traded a judicial robe for a white lab coat in assessing the validity, reliability and `fit' of the scientific materials relied upon by Amorgianos' experts, plaintiffs maintain that he usurped the role of the jury and the experts by assessing the credibility, rather than the admissibility, of the expert testimony and by rendering his own opinion based on the scientific literature. For the reasons that follow, we reject plaintiffs' contentions.
29 We review a district court's determination to admit or exclude expert testimony under Daubert for abuse of discretion. Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137, 152, 119 S.Ct. 1167, 143 L.Ed.2d 238 (1999); Gen. Elec. Co. v. Joiner, 522 U.S. 136, 141-42, 118 S.Ct. 512, 139 L.Ed.2d 508 (1997) (holding that abuse of discretion is the proper standard of review of a district court's evidentiary rulings and that Daubert did not alter this general standard). As the Supreme Court explained in Kumho Tire, [o]ur opinion in Joiner makes clear that a court of appeals is to apply an abuse-of-discretion standard when it `review[s] a trial court's decision to admit or exclude expert testimony.' 526 U.S. at 152, 119 S.Ct. 1167 (quoting Joiner, 522 U.S. at 138-39, 118 S.Ct. 512); see, e.g., Campbell v. Metro. Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 239 F.3d 179, 185 (2d Cir.2001) (same). 30 A decision to admit or exclude expert scientific testimony is not an abuse of discretion unless it is manifestly erroneous. McCullock v. H.B. Fuller Co., 61 F.3d 1038, 1042 (2d Cir.1995); accord Joiner, 522 U.S. at 142, 118 S.Ct. 512; Campbell, 239 F.3d at 185. Significantly, the abuse of discretion standard applies as much to the trial court's decisions about how to determine reliability as to its ultimate conclusion. Kumho Tire, 526 U.S. at 152, 119 S.Ct. 1167 (emphasis added). Thus, in analyzing the admissibility of expert evidence, the district court has broad discretion in determining what method is appropriate for evaluating reliability under the circumstances of each case.
31 Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which governs the admissibility of expert and other scientific or technical expert testimony, provides as follows: 32 If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case. 33 Fed.R.Evid. 702. 34 Interpreting Rule 702 in Daubert, the Supreme Court rejected the traditional Frye rule, under which courts required that a scientific theory be generally accepted by the scientific community in order to be admissible. Daubert, 509 U.S. at 585-89, 113 S.Ct. 2786; see Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013, 1014 (D.C.Cir.1923); see also Zuchowicz v. United States, 140 F.3d 381, 386 n. 5 (2d Cir.1998) (discussing Supreme Court's rejection of Frye ). Concluding that the bright-line general acceptance test established in Frye was at odds with the liberal thrust of the Federal Rules of Evidence, Daubert, 509 U.S. at 588, 113 S.Ct. 2786 (internal quotation marks omitted), the Supreme Court has made clear that the district court has a gatekeeping function under Rule 702 — it is charged with the task of ensuring that an expert's testimony both rests on a reliable foundation and is relevant to the task at hand. Id. at 597, 113 S.Ct. 2786; accord Campbell, 239 F.3d at 184; Federal Judicial Center, Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence 11 (2d ed.2000). 35 In fulfilling this gatekeeping role, the trial court should look to the standards of Rule 401 in analyzing whether proffered expert testimony is relevant, i.e., whether it `ha[s] any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.' Campbell, 239 F.3d at 184 (quoting Fed.R.Evid. 401) (alteration in original). Next, the district court must determine whether the proffered testimony has a sufficiently `reliable foundation' to permit it to be considered. Id. (quoting Daubert, 509 U.S. at 597, 113 S.Ct. 2786). In this inquiry, the district court should consider the indicia of reliability identified in Rule 702, namely, (1) that the testimony is grounded on sufficient facts or data; (2) that the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and (3) that the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case. Fed.R.Evid. 702. In short, the district court must make certain that an expert, whether basing testimony upon professional studies or personal experience, employs in the courtroom the same level of intellectual rigor that characterizes the practice of an expert in the relevant field. Kumho Tire, 526 U.S. at 152, 119 S.Ct. 1167. 36 Although Rule 702 sets forth specific criteria for the district court's consideration, the Daubert inquiry is fluid and will necessarily vary from case to case. The Supreme Court has identified a number of factors bearing on reliability that district courts may consider, such as (1) whether a theory or technique can be (and has been) tested, Daubert, 509 U.S. at 593, 113 S.Ct. 2786; (2) whether the theory or technique has been subjected to peer review and publication, id.; (3) a technique's known or potential rate of error, and the existence and maintenance of standards controlling the technique's operation, id. at 594, 113 S.Ct. 2786; and (4) whether a particular technique or theory has gained general acceptance in the relevant scientific community, id. See also Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Suna Assocs., Inc., 80 F.3d 681, 687 (2d Cir.1996) (discussing Daubert factors); Jack B. Weinstein & Margaret A. Berger, Weinstein's Federal Evidence § 702.05[2][a], at 702-66 to 702-72.2 (Joseph M. McLaughlin ed., 2d ed.2002) (listing factors for the district court's consideration identified in Daubert and its progeny). These factors do not constitute, however, a definitive checklist or test. Daubert, 509 U.S. at 593, 113 S.Ct. 2786. Rather, [t]he inquiry envisioned by Rule 702 is ... a flexible one, id. at 594, 113 S.Ct. 2786, and the gatekeeping inquiry must be tied to the facts of a particular case, Kumho Tire, 526 U.S. at 150, 119 S.Ct. 1167 (internal quotation marks omitted). 37 In undertaking this flexible inquiry, the district court must focus on the principles and methodology employed by the expert, without regard to the conclusions the expert has reached or the district court's belief as to the correctness of those conclusions. See Daubert, 509 U.S. at 595, 113 S.Ct. 2786. But, as the Supreme Court recognized in Joiner, 38 conclusions and methodology are not entirely distinct from one another.... [N]othing in either Daubert or the Federal Rules of Evidence requires a district court to admit opinion evidence that is connected to existing data only by the ipse dixit of the expert. A court may conclude that there is simply too great an analytical gap between the data and the opinion proffered. 39 522 U.S. at 146, 118 S.Ct. 512. Thus, when an expert opinion is based on data, a methodology, or studies that are simply inadequate to support the conclusions reached, Daubert and Rule 702 mandate the exclusion of that unreliable opinion testimony. See Heller v. Shaw Indus., Inc., 167 F.3d 146, 153 (3d Cir.1999) ([A] district court must examine the expert's conclusions in order to determine whether they could reliably follow from the facts known to the expert and the methodology used.). 40 This is not to suggest that an expert must back his or her opinion with published studies that unequivocally support his or her conclusions. See Bonner v. ISP Techs., Inc., 259 F.3d 924, 929 (8th Cir.2001) (observing that [t]here is no requirement `that a medical expert must always cite published studies on general causation in order to reliably conclude that a particular object caused a particular illness') (quoting Heller, 167 F.3d at 155); see also Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp., 80 F.3d at 687 (finding no abuse of discretion in the admission of expert testimony based on a hybrid of two widely used methods). In McCullock, for example, we affirmed the district court's admission of medical expert testimony despite the fact that the expert could not point to a single piece of medical literature that specifically supported the expert's opinion. 61 F.3d at 1043. Where an expert otherwise reliably utilizes scientific methods to reach a conclusion, lack of textual support may go to the weight, not the admissibility of the expert's testimony. Id. at 1044; see also Zuchowicz, 140 F.3d at 387. A contrary requirement would effectively resurrect a Frye -like bright-line standard, not by requiring that a methodology be `generally accepted,' but by excluding expert testimony not backed by published (and presumably peer-reviewed) studies. Heller, 167 F.3d at 155. Such a bright-line requirement would be at odds with the liberal admissibility standards of the federal rules and the express teachings of Daubert. See McCullock, 61 F.3d at 1042, 1044. 41 The flexible Daubert inquiry gives the district court the discretion needed to ensure that the courtroom door remains closed to junk science while admitting reliable expert testimony that will assist the trier of fact. To warrant admissibility, however, it is critical that an expert's analysis be reliable at every step. As Chief Judge Becker of the Third Circuit has explained, the Daubert requirement that the expert testify to scientific knowledge — conclusions supported by good grounds for each step in the analysis — means that any step that renders the analysis unreliable under the Daubert factors renders the expert's testimony inadmissible. In re Paoli R.R. Yard PCB Litig., 35 F.3d 717, 745 (3d Cir.1994); see also Heller, 167 F.3d at 155 ([T]he reliability analysis applies to all aspects of an expert's testimony: the methodology, the facts underlying the expert's opinion, the link between the facts and the conclusion, et alia. ). 42 In deciding whether a step in an expert's analysis is unreliable, the district court should undertake a rigorous examination of the facts on which the expert relies, the method by which the expert draws an opinion from those facts, and how the expert applies the facts and methods to the case at hand. A minor flaw in an expert's reasoning or a slight modification of an otherwise reliable method will not render an expert's opinion per se inadmissible. The judge should only exclude the evidence if the flaw is large enough that the expert lacks `good grounds' for his or her conclusions. In re Paoli, 35 F.3d at 746; see Daubert, 509 U.S. at 590, 113 S.Ct. 2786. This limitation on when evidence should be excluded accords with the liberal admissibility standards of the federal rules and recognizes that our adversary system provides the necessary tools for challenging reliable, albeit debatable, expert testimony. As the Supreme Court has explained, [v]igorous cross-examination, presentation of contrary evidence, and careful instruction on the burden of proof are the traditional and appropriate means of attacking shaky but admissible evidence. Daubert, 509 U.S. at 596, 113 S.Ct. 2786; accord Weinstein, § 702.05[3] at 702-76. 43 In addition, if the admissible evidence is insufficient to permit a rational juror to find in favor of the plaintiff, the court remains free to direct a verdict or grant summary judgment for defendant. See Weisgram v. Marley Co., 528 U.S. 440, 455-56, 120 S.Ct. 1011, 145 L.Ed.2d 958 (2000) (affirming appellate grant of judgment as a matter of law where court of appeals concluded that expert testimony was erroneously admitted and found the remaining evidence insufficient to support the jury's verdict); Daubert, 509 U.S. at 596, 113 S.Ct. 2786 (citing Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a) & 56); see, e.g., Brooks v. Outboard Marine Corp., 234 F.3d 89, 92 (2d Cir. 2000) (per curiam) (affirming district court's grant of summary judgment). We have cautioned, however, that the district court's Daubert gatekeeping role does not permit the district court, in ruling on evidentiary sufficiency, to reject admissible expert testimony. See In re Joint E. & S. Dist. Asbestos Litig., 52 F.3d 1124, 1132-34 (2d Cir.1995); see also Marbled Murrelet, 83 F.3d at 1066-67. Once the district court has deemed the evidence sufficiently reliable so as to be admissible, it is bound to consider the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiff when deciding motions for summary judgment or judgment as a matter of law. In re Joint, 52 F.3d at 1135.
44 In this case, plaintiffs argue that the district court's Daubert ruling usurped the jury's function. They contend that the defects, if any, with respect to their proffered expert testimony went to its weight, not its admissibility. We disagree. 45 As Judge Trager observed, to establish their case under New York law, plaintiffs would have to prove that Amorgianos suffered from overexposure to xylene and that he is ill; they are also required to produce expert opinion evidence based on suitable hypotheses in order to support a finding of causation. Amorgianos, 137 F.Supp.2d at 160 (internal quotation marks omitted). More specifically, to establish causation, they must offer admissible expert testimony regarding both general causation, i.e., that xylene exposure can cause the type of ailments from which Amorgianos claims to suffer; and specific causation, i.e., that xylene exposure actually caused his alleged neurological problems. Id. at 161; see Zuchowicz, 140 F.3d at 383 (There is ... no older requirement in this area of law than the need to show such a link [i.e., medical causation] between the defendant's actions and the plaintiff's loss.). 46 As set forth in Judge Trager's comprehensive opinion, the testimony of Amorgianos's experts was fatally flawed with respect to the duration and degree of Amorgianos's exposure to xylene, and on the issues of general and specific causation. The district court thus had a sound basis for each of its carefully circumscribed exclusions of plaintiffs' expert testimony. 47 With respect to Caravanos, plaintiffs' industrial hygienist, the district court rejected his testimony regarding the xylene concentration inside the containment because Caravanos failed to apply his own methodology reliably. Caravanos testified that the evaporation rate of a solvent from paint (and, hence, the resulting concentration of solvent vapor in an enclosed space) depends on the volatility/vapor pressure of the particular solvent in question, temperature, humidity and `radiant energy', and that `proper exposure assessment' would consider those variables. Amorgianos, 137 F.Supp.2d at 174 (quoting Trial Tr. at 41 (June 18, 1998)). In reaching his conclusion about Amorgianos's exposure, however, Caravanos did not include any of these variables in his calculations. Instead, he included only variables for the amount of paint used, its xylene content, and the volume of the containment.... Id. (citations omitted). Although data on the additional variables was available to Caravanos, he inexplicably did not find it necessary to include them in his calculation despite his stated opinion that a proper exposure assessment would take them into consideration. Id. at 174, 175 n. 16. In light of his failure to apply the proper method for determining concentration and trial testimony suggesting that the solvent was evaporating from the paint more slowly than usual, the district court excluded Caravanos's opinion as unreliable. 3 Id. at 174-75. 48 Because Caravanos's opinion rested on a faulty assumption due to his failure to apply his stated methodology reliably to the facts of the case, Fed.R.Evid. 702, Caravanos's expert opinion regarding the xylene concentration to which Amorgianos was exposed was not based on good grounds. In re Paoli, 35 F.3d at 746. Accordingly, the district court's exclusion of Caravanos's testimony regarding the xylene concentration inside the containment was not an abuse of discretion. 49 With respect to the court's exclusion of plaintiffs' experts' general causation testimony, Judge Trager conducted an extremely thorough review of the scientific literature on which plaintiffs' experts relied, see Amorgianos, 137 F.Supp.2d at 192-216. Although this degree of review, while commendable, may not always be necessary to evaluate whether proffered expert testimony is admissible, Judge Trager's evaluation of the fit between the experts' opinions and the scientific literature on which they relied was certainly within the broad discretion afforded to the district court under Daubert and its progeny, and did not impinge upon the jury's function. It is precisely such an undertaking that assures that an expert, when formulating an opinion for use in the courtroom, will employ the same level of intellectual rigor as would be expected in the scientific community. 50 The Supreme Court recognized in Joiner that the district court may carefully review the studies on which proffered experts rely in forming their opinions: 51 [B]ecause it was within the District Court's discretion to conclude that the studies upon which the experts relied were not sufficient, whether individually or in combination, to support their conclusions that Joiner's exposure to PCB's contributed to his cancer, the District Court did not abuse its discretion in excluding their testimony. 52 Joiner, 522 U.S. at 146-47, 118 S.Ct. 512. Accordingly, we reject plaintiffs' assertion that the district court's method of evaluating the reliability of the experts constituted a usurpation of the jury's and experts' roles. 53 We hold that the district court's exclusion of all of plaintiffs' expert general causation testimony with respect to Amorgianos's long-term ailments 4 was not an abuse of discretion. As succinctly summarized by the district court, plaintiffs needed to offer admissible expert causation testimony to establish the following hypothesis: 54 that exposure to xylene in amounts averaging 500 to 2000 ppm on August 28, 1995 and each of preceding three workdays, and for three to five hour periods on intermittent days in the preceding thirty days can, as a general matter, cause the complex of [central nervous system] and [peripheral nervous system] symptoms that Mr. Amorgianos alleges. 55 Amorgianos, 137 F.Supp.2d at 178. 56 With respect to Amorgianos's treating physician, Dr. Moline, the district court thoroughly reviewed all of the materials on which she relied in forming her opinion and concluded that there was too great an `analytical gap' between the conclusions reached by the authors of Dr. Moline's cited articles and the conclusions that she draws from their work. Id. at 185. Although Dr. Moline relied on a number of published articles in concluding that Amorgianos's xylene exposure caused him to suffer from polyneuropathy, the district court's close analysis of those studies revealed that (1) none of them provides evidence of the neurological effects of short-term xylene exposure; (2) all of the articles involved individuals who were exposed to a variety of solvents, many of which were not contained in the paint Amorgianos used; and (3) all of the articles connecting solvent exposure to peripheral nervous system symptoms found evidence of symmetrical polyneuropathy only, not of the asymmetrical symptoms of which Amorgianos complained. Id. 57 Accordingly, for the reasons stated in its thorough opinion, we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding Dr. Moline's testimony upon reasonably concluding that the analytical gap between the studies on which she relied and her conclusions was simply too great and that her opinion was thus unreliable. See Joiner, 522 U.S. at 146-47, 118 S.Ct. 512; see, e.g., Meister v. Med. Eng'g Corp., 267 F.3d 1123, 1132 (D.C.Cir.2001) (affirming judgment as a matter of law for defendant where plaintiff's experts relied on epidemiological evidence that failed to establish a causal link between breast implants and the disease from which plaintiff suffered). 58 For the same reasons, the district court's rejection of Dr. Rutchik's and Caravanos's general causation opinion testimony was also not an abuse of discretion. See Amorgianos, 137 F.Supp.2d at 185-88 (discussing problem of fit between Dr. Rutchik's conclusions and the articles upon which he relied); id. at 188-91 (discussing Caravanos's lack of qualifications, as an industrial hygienist, to theorize regarding general medical causation and the unreliable methodology he used; pointing out that Caravanos did not actually read a single article as part of his literature survey). 59 Under the Supreme Court's analysis in Joiner and its unequivocal statement in Kumho Tire that the district court has discretion in deciding how to determine reliability, we conclude that the approach the district court used in this case was not an abuse of discretion. The district court's rigorous analysis of the methods that plaintiffs' experts used in reaching their opinions was appropriate given the facts of this case. In light of the defects in the methodologies employed by plaintiffs' experts and the district court's reasonable determination that there was a significant analytical gap between the experts' opinions and the studies on which they relied in reaching their conclusions, the district court's exclusion of plaintiffs' experts' testimony because it was not grounded in science was well within its discretion. See Amorgianos, 137 F.Supp.2d at 191 (concluding that plaintiffs' experts' opinions are not based on `scientific ... knowledge' and will not assist the jury in determining the issue of causation in this case).