Court Opinion

ID: 9717571
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:06:10.203719+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:54.061487
License: Public Domain

DAVID GAULTNEY, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I would hold a specific objection was required to the reliability of a learned treatise when the learned treatise was offered as evidence. More than a scintilla of evidence supports the jury verdict. However, because of charge error, I would hold the judgment must be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.
Appellant challenges the legal sufficiency of the “evidence to support the jury’s finding that Mr. Bailey’s lung cancer was proximately caused by Mobil’s conduct in exposing him to asbestos at Mobil’s facilities.” In addressing this legal sufficiency challenge to the causation finding, the majority correctly looks to Havner to assess the reliability of the expert testimony supporting the jury’s finding. See Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc. v. Havner, 953 S.W.2d 706, 712-13 (Tex.1997). However, Havner dealt with a drug which could not be demonstrated to cause the type of injury the plaintiff suffered. Id. at 711, 724-30. From my reading of the briefs, it seems unchallenged in this appeal that asbestos is a carcinogen capable of causing lung cancer under some circumstances. The dispute in this appeal is over the circumstances in which that causation occurs. This difference is highlighted by appellant’s citation to a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court stated “[t]here is an undisputed relationship between exposure to asbestos sufficient to cause asbestosis and asbestos related-cancer.” See Norfolk & W. Ry. Co. v. Ayers, 538 U.S. 135, 154-55, 123 S.Ct. 1210, 155 L.Ed.2d 261 (2003). The dispute here is whether asbestos exposure sometimes causes lung cancer without causing asbestosis.
In Havner, the Supreme Court observed that the “opinions to which the Havners’ witnesses testified have never been offered outside the confines of a courthouse.” Havner, 953 S.W.2d at 726. That seems a distinction from the evidence at issue here. Dr. Lemen, plaintiffs’ epidemiologist, acknowledges a controversy exists in the scientific community concerning whether a diagnosis of asbestosis is a prerequisite to attributing a lung cancer to asbestos exposure. He explained the controversy, and explained some non-judicial uses of the information nevertheless. The following testimony from Dr. Lemen is illustrative:
Q. [Plaintiffs’ Counsel] Doctor, one of the issues that’s been raised in this case is the absence of asbestosis in Mr. Bailey’s case. Are you familial* with — familiar with the debate regarding the necessity of asbestosis in order to diagnose asbestos related lung cancer?
A. I am.
*276Q. Are you familiar within this body of medical literature of any studies which support the diagnosis of asbestos related lung cancer in the absence of asbestosis?
A. Yes. I think you have to put it in context, if I may. And I think to put it in context, in the very beginning of our knowledge about lung cancer we only saw it in people who had the disease asbestosis, leading many of the early researchers to believe that you had to have asbestosis or some form of scarring or some lung disease related to asbestos before you could develop a cancer.
As the exposure concentrations went down and the amount of asbestosis went down, we started seeing lung cancer in people in the absence of this scarring and this asbestosis.
While there is still a controversy about this issue — some believe that you can’t get lung cancer without asbestosis — there is a prevailing group of people that believe that there are cancers of the lung occurring in people that do not have any signs or symptoms of asbestosis or related conditions of the lung. And this has been borne out in cross-sectional medical studies in looking at people that are in the asbestos industry that have developed lung cancer.
So, again, this is a controversial issue; but it is one that, in my opinion — and I’m speaking for myself — there’s enough evidence to show that in the absence of asbestosis lung cancer can also develop.
Q. Okay. Are you familiar with the Dr. Mark and others’ article entitled “Asbestos and the Histogenesis of Lung Carcinoma”?
A. Yes.
Q. And does Dr. Mark conclude that you do not need asbestosis in order to facilitate the diagnosis of asbestos related lung cancer?
A. Yes, he does. And I think most of the medical textbooks that are written today, including papers that I’ve written myself—
(Defendant’s Counsel): Excuse me, your Honor. Nonresponsive past “yes”.
Q. (Plaintiffs Counsel): Dr. Lemen, in addition to Dr. Mark, you also referenced that there was other supporting material for that position. And can you detail that for us?
A. Yes. I think that the most recent medical texts in occupational lung disease as well as occupational medicine — including one by Rosenstock and Cullen in' 1996, which is probably one of the standard bearers that we use in medical schools today— would indicate that you don’t have to have asbestosis for the development of lung cancer. ' I’ve written on this myself, and it’s my opinion that you don’t have to have asbestosis or any lung markers to attribute a lung cancer to exposure to asbestos.
As a matter of fact, in 1996 there was a panel convened in Helsinki of experts from around the world that met to look at criteria for the development of asbestosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma, and the asbestos related diseases. And it was their conclusion that you have lung cancer without having preexisting other types of asbestotic type disease of the lung.
Q. And, Doctor, I’d just like to show you briefly Exhibit 17.
And in the title does this fairly sum up your opinion, “Asbestos Inhalation, Not Asbestosis, Causes Lung Cancer”?
*277A. Absolutely.
Q. Now, you mentioned smoking, Doctor. What is your opinion with respect to smoking and the development of lung cancer?
A. We know that the leading cause of lung cancer within the United States and the world today is cigarette smoking. And you can’t discount cigarette smoking for its role in the development of lung cancer. We generally believe that about 15 percent — that a person that’s not exposed to asbestos might have about a 15 percent chance of developing lung cancer. We know, however, that if you’re exposed to asbestos, 10 to 15 percent, depending on which literature you look at. But if you’re exposed to asbestos, that risk jumps well over 50 percent. So, we know it’s not just a additive effect. In other words, 10 percent and then you smoke and it adds another 5 percent or 10 percent, whatever you want to say. It’s a synergistic effect. In other words, it’s a multiplicative effect. It multiplies.
So, asbestos workers that smoke cigarettes have a phenomenal risk of developing lung cancer. And this has been well-documented in the cancer literature, and I think that you will find this representation to be true in the textbooks that deal with occupational disease today.
As the Supreme Court noted in Havner, a factor a court should consider in assessing the scientific reliability of an expert’s opinion is “the non-judicial uses that have been made of the theory or technique.” Id. at 714 (citing E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co. v. Robinson, 923 S.W.2d 549, 557 (Tex. 1995)). If the scientific evidence is relied on for non-judicial purposes, as in medical textbooks used to prevent or diagnose disease, that factor should weigh in favor of a court’s finding the information reliable. Testimony that the “most recent medical texts in occupational lung disease as well as occupational medicine” “would indicate that you don’t have to have asbestosis for the development of lung cancer” suggests an important non-judicial use of the information and acceptance of the theory in the medical community.
Dr. Friedman, a medical doctor specializing in pulmonary and occupational medicine, testified Bailey’s cancer was caused by smoking and exposure to asbestos, and the two exposures acted synergistieally. When asked whether asbestosis must be diagnosed to attribute the lung cancer to asbestos exposure, Dr. Friedman testified as follows:
No. I believe the current thinking is you don’t have to have the disease asbestosis. Those are separate diseases. Asbestosis and lung cancer, pleural plaque, mesothelioma, each are individual diseases. I do share the opinion that you have to have a high level of exposure, a level that sometimes can cause asbestosis, so you see the two together .... But, if necessary, we can look at a lot of articles and show you can get lung cancer without having asbestosis. It’s the asbestos fiber that causes the disease at a high concentration but not— you don’t have to have asbestosis, which is a whole different disease.
This testimony occurred while Dr. Friedman was making a slide presentation to the jury, and he then showed a slide of one article he described as a “consensus report” of “19 world authorities” who concluded asbestosis was not a prerequisite to asbestos-caused lung cancer. He apparently also showed a slide of an article entitled “Radiographic Asbestosis Is Not a Prerequisite For Asbestos Associated
*278With Lung Cancer.” Throughout the slide presentation Dr. Friedman cited scientific writings. The slides are not in the record, nor are many of the articles on which he and appellees rely.1
Appellees cite this Court to three record exhibits admitted without objection as learned treatises. The parties agreed the exhibits, as learned treatises, would not “go back to the jury room.” See Tex.R. Evid. 808(18). Appellant’s response to the offer of these exhibits at trial was as . follows:
[Defendant’s Counsel]: No objections. [Defendant’s Counsel]: Judge, we have no objection except we would note that they are learned treatises. So they don’t go back to the jury room, although they’re admitted for every other purpose.
[Plaintiffs’ counsel]: Agreed.
The Court: Admitted.
Generally, if a party does not object at the time objectionable evidence is offered, error is not preserved for appeal. See Clark v. Trailways, Inc., 774 S.W.2d 644, 647 (Tex.1989); Tex.R.App. P. 33.1(a). Objections should be timely and specific. Tex.R. Evid. 103(a)(1); Tex.R.App. P. 33.1(a). “A specific objection is'one which enables the trial court to understand the precise grounds so as to make an informed ruling, affording the offering party an opportunity to remedy the defect, if possible.” McKinney v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., 772 S.W.2d 72, 74 (Tex.1989).
A “learned treatise” under the Rules of Evidence is a document “established as a reliable authority” by a witness or judicial notice. See Tex.R. Evid. 803(18). One appellate court in a criminal case explained the rationale for the learned treatise exception to the hearsay rule as follows:
The rationale for the learned treatise exception lies in the fact that a “high standard of accuracy is engendered by various factors: the treatise is written primarily and impartially for professionals, subject to scrutiny and exposure for inaccuracy, with the reputation of the writer at stake.” Fed.R.Evid. 803 advisory committee’s note. The author of a . treatise is likely to have been motivated in writing the treatise by a strong desire to accurately state the full truth. Edward W. Cleary, McCormick’s Handbook of the Law of Evidence 743 (1972). Unlike an expert witness, the author of a learned treatise is impartial, disinterested and not awaiting a fee for testifying. Jack B. Weinstein & Margaret A. Berger, 4 Weinstein’s Evidence ¶ 803-25 (1990).
Loven v. State, 831 S.W.2d 387, 396 (Tex.App.-Amarillo 1992, no pet.)(footnote omitted). That court held' evidence meeting the learned treatise exception “is, of necessity, rehable.” Id.
When a learned treatise is offered as evidence, a party should object to its admission in evidence if the article is considered unreliable. See generally David H. Kaye, David E. Bernstein, & Jennifer L Mnookin, The New Wigmore: A Treatise on Evidence § 4.4.2(a), at 140-41(2004)(“The author of an admitted learned treatise is essentially serving as an expert via hearsay, and therefore should be subject to similar strictures as testifying experts.”)(footnote omitted). A specif*279ic and timely objection to a learned treatise would provide the offering party an opportunity to further develop the record with foundational data underlying the scientific reliability of the expert opinion. See Exxon Corp. v. Makofski, 116 S.W.3d 176,180-81 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2003, pet. denied). (Objections are required at trial “so the plaintiffs would have an opportunity to cure any defects regarding reliability and present us with a fully developed record.”). If a party states it has “no objection” to a learned treatise, a trial court may consider that assertion as a waiver of a reliability challenge to the learned treatise.
Arguably, the objection to the documents was initially preserved, and the plaintiffs were put on notice of any defect, by the pretrial objection to the causation testimony, which was urged again before the experts began their testimony. See Guadalupe-Bianco River Auth. v. Kraft, 77 S.W.3d 805, 806-07 (Tex.2002) (“To preserve a complaint that an expert’s testimony is unreliable, a party must object to the testimony before trial or when it is offered.”)(footnote omitted). My reading of the written objection, however, is that appellant focused largely on whether the asbestos exposure “attributable to Mobil” was sufficient to cause Mr. Bailey’s cancer, rather than on whether asbestosis is a prerequisite to asbestos-caused cancer. While there are assertions of plaintiffs’ burdens, and appellant attached a copy of its expert’s report of no asbestosis and so no causal relationship in his opinion, I see no mention in the written objection that a diagnosis of asbestosis is a prerequisite to asbestos-caused lung cancer. The Supreme Court has said no objection need be made to incompetent evidence, and unreliable expert testimony is incompetent. See City of Keller, 168 S.W.3d 802, 812-13 (Tex.2005). The Court also has said that when a reliability challenge requires the court to evaluate the underlying foundational data used by the expert, an objection must be timely made so that the trial court has the opportunity to conduct this analysis. Coastal Transp. Inc. v. Crown Cent. Petroleum Corp., 136 S.W.3d 227, 233 (Tex.2004). A scientific reliability determination should not be an unfocused task; a specific and timely objection provides focus. In the absence of a specific challenge at trial to a learned treatise, a trial court’s ruling may be uninformed of a reliability problem. Coastal Transp., 136 S.W.3d at 233; see also Makofski 116 S.W.3d at 180-81. In my view, an objection (rather than a statement of “no objection”) was required at the time a learned treatise supporting the testimony was offered if that article was considered unreliable.
The first of the three exhibits appellees cite, Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 16, is a published article titled “Asbestos and the Histogen-esis of Lung Carcinoma.” The article is referred to in Dr. Lemen’s testimony quoted above. The article analyzes the scientific evidence supporting “proposals to sort out those carcinomas due to asbestos from those tumors due to another cause.” In a section titled “Must Pulmonary Fibrosis or Asbestosis Be Present in the Lung to Attribute the Carcinoma to Asbestos?”, the article describes some scientific studies and then states as follows: “These divergent results are consistent with the theory that asbestosis occurs more frequently after heavy occupational exposure, but that low levels of exposure can produce a rapidly growing cancer before having time to cause asbestosis in some patients.” In considering the presence of asbestos bodies on histopathological examination, the article states the following: “Although the requirement of coexistent carcinoma and asbestosis to make etiologic attribution is convenient, basic biological principles sug*280gest this approach is oversimplified and not correct.”
Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 17 is simply a “commentary.” The commentary was admitted without objection at trial as a “learned treatise,” and it includes the following statement: “Very recently, McDonald et al. [1994] have presented epidemiologic data indicating ‘that workers from occupations with a high probability of exposure to asbestos are at increased risk of lung cancer even in the absence of radiological evidence of pulmonary fibrosis.’ ” Dr. Friedman referred to a McDonald study in his testimony, but that study is not in the record. The third document cited by ap-pellee, admitted without objection at trial as a “learned treatise,” is an epidemiology study “designed to test the hypothesis that the risk of lung cancer from asbestos exposure is confined to persons with radio-graphic evidence of pulmonary fibrosis.” The summary of the study admitted as Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 18 states: “These results suggest that asbestos is associated with lung cancer even in the absence of radiologically apparent pulmonary fibrosis.”
In a footnote in its reply brief, appellant points out that these articles were admitted as learned treatises, pursuant to the learned treatise exception to the hearsay rule, and did not go back to the jury. Appellant then states, “Accordingly, because none of these articles were placed in the record prior to the trial court’s admissibility ruling, those articles may not be considered by the Court.” However, statements from a learned treatise may be considered by the jury as substantive evidence, though Rule 803(18) says that “[i]f admitted, the statements may be read into evidence but may not be received as exhibits.” See Tex.R. Evid. 803(18). See also Godsey v. State, 989 S.W.2d 482, 492 (Tex.App.-Waco 1999, pet. refd); Loven, 831 S.W.2d at 395 (“[EJvidence contained in a learned treatise” is not “inferior to live testimony by the author of the treatise or some other expert.”). When an appellate challenge is to the legal sufficiency of the evidence, and to the scientific reliability of expert testimony, an appellate court looks at all the evidence in the trial record. See generally City of Keller, 168 S.W.3d at 812-13; Havner, 953 S.W.2d at 711. The proper exclusion from the jury room of the learned treatises under Rule 803(18) does not limit our reliability review, and the trial court was not limited in its reliability determination at trial to those documents provided to the court before trial.
In Havner, the Supreme Court said there is more than a scintilla of evidence when the evidence, that supports the finding, as a whole, rises to a level that would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to differ in their conclusions. Havner, 953 S.W.2d at 711. The Court also stated, “Courts should allow a party, plaintiff or defendant, to present the best available evidence, assuming it passes muster under Robinson, and only then should a court determine from a totality of the evidence, considering all facts affecting the reliability of particular studies, whether there is legally sufficient evidence to support a judgment.” Id. at 720. In Robinson, the Supreme Court stated, “The factors a trial court will find helpful in determining whether the underlying theories and teachings of the proffered evidence are scientifically reliable will differ with each particular case.” Robinson, 923 S.W.2d at 557.
I would hold on this trial record the expert testimony had sufficient reliability to be helpful to the jury in resolving the fact issue. Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 16, analyzing and summarizing epidemiological and other scientific data, to my reading supports plaintiffs’ experts’ causation testimony, as *281do Exhibits 17 and 18. The non-judicial uses made of the underlying information are factors supporting the trial court’s ruling. To my reading, the scientific reliability of certain evidence in the record is not challenged on appeal by appellant. Evidence apparently not challenged on appeal includes the following: Mr. Bailey died of lung cancer; asbestos is a carcinogen that may cause lung cancer under some circumstances (the required conditions are in dispute); Mr. Bailey was exposed to asbestos at work but was never diagnosed with asbestosis, a different disease; cigarette smoke is known to cause lung cancer; Mr. Bailey smoked cigarettes; asbestos and cigarette smoke are known to act synergis-tieally under certain conditions (the required conditions are in dispute). I would hold the evidence supporting the jury finding is more than a scintilla and therefore legally sufficient.
The trial court’s judgment should not be affirmed, however. The trial court failed to submit a contributory negligence question to the jury. One was requested. There is sometimes more than one proximate cause of an injury. See Lee Lewis Constr., Inc. v. Harrison, 70 S.W.3d 778, 784 (Tex.2001) (citing Travis v. City of Mesquite, 830 S.W.2d 94,98 (Tex.1992)). Cigarette smoke is a cause of lung cancer. Whether Mr. Bailey was negligent, and whether his negligence caused the lung cancer, are controlling questions in this litigation. Trial courts are to submit to the jury controlling fact issues properly pleaded and supported by the evidence. See Tex.R. Civ. P. 278; Triplex Communs., Inc. v. Riley, 900 S.W.2d 716, 718 (Tex.1995).
Appellees argue the trial court did not err because, they say, there was no evidence Mr. Bailey had any subjective knowledge that lung cancer is “synergis-tically linked to smoking.” In support of this assertion, appellees cite a federal district court opinion, which reasoned as follows:
The defense of contributory negligence requires findings that the victim was negligent, or failed to act as an ordinary, prudent person, and that the victim’s negligence was a proximate cause of the injury or damages. Brown v. Edwards Transfer Co., 764 S.W.2d 220, 223 (Tex. 1988). Consequently, a plaintiffs smoking may only be considered contributory negligence if the plaintiff is suffering from an asbestos-related disease which is synergisically linked to smoking. Furthermore, the defense of contributory negligence requires a showing that the plaintiff had subjective knowledge and appreciation of the danger of a product. Terminix, Inc. v. Right Away Foods Corp., 771 S.W.2d 675, 682 (Tex. App.-Corpus Christi 1989, writ denied). For smoking to be considered contributory negligence, it must be shown that the plaintiff had subjective knowledge of the synergistic relationship between the asbestos-related disease and smoking and appreciated the danger of continued smoking.
Cimino v. Raymark Indus., Inc., 751 F.Supp. 649, 658 (E.D.Tex.1990), ajfd in part and rev’d in part on other grounds, 151 F.3d 297, 335 (5th Cir.Tex.1998).
I cannot agree. A cigarette smoker need not know the scientific explanation of how cigarette smoke causes lung cancer— or whether asbestos or any other agent may increase the risk — to be at least partially responsible for lung cancer caused in whole or in part by smoking. The contributory negligence question should have been submitted to the jury. I would reverse the trial court’s judgment and remand the case for a new trial because of this charge error. See Tex.R.App. P. *28244.1(a); Elbaor v. Smith, 845 S.W.2d 240, 243^5 (Tex.1992).

. The absence from the record of many learned treatises cited by both, of appellees’ experts makes difficult appellate review for reliability and legal sufficiency. See Exxon Corp. v. Makofski, 116 S.W.3d 176, 183 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2003, pet. denied). ■("But while- the rules of evidence withhold learned treatises from jurors, that does not mean they , should be withheld entirely from the record. Without them, we are hard-pressed to conduct the kind of review Havner requires.”).-