Court Opinion

ID: 9478102
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:40:06.60936+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:14.458752
License: Public Domain

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
While concurring in the judgment and much of the reasoning of the majority, I must write separately to set out my view of the appropriate degree of proof on damages. The majority concludes that certain of plaintiffs’ alleged injuries were not proven to a reasonable medical certainty. Accordingly, the majority would remand for recalculation of the damage awards to exclude those portions of the awards attributed by the district court to injuries the majority finds unsupported by sufficient medical testimony.
My difficulty with the majority’s treatment of the damages issue is the overly rigid way in which it applies the conceded legal standard of proof of a reasonable medical certainty. The majority correctly states that before there can be recovery, causation must be shown to a reasonable medical certainty. This court pointed that out in Thompson v. Underwood, 407 F.2d 994 (6th Cir.1969). However in Thompson we noted that this was a “general rule” and, further, that the substance of a doctor’s testimony should not be disregarded “merely because he fails to use the magic words ‘reasonable medical certainty.’ ” Id. at 997.
There were several descriptive terms used by the medical experts in this case, though I acknowledge the absence of the magic words “reasonable medical certainty.” However, if, as this court held in Thompson, the requirement is general and magic words are not necessary, the district court, as the fact finder, is free to reach Rome by an alternate route, so long as there is proof of exposure to the chemicals and of various injuries. The sufficiency of that proof, I would leave to the trier of fact, be it a judge or a properly instructed jury. It seems to me that the general standard of proof can be met, on a prima facie basis, where the record contains expert testimony on the chemicals and its properties, and proof of exposure to the chemicals supported by some medical testimony. It seems to me that at this point a rebuttable presumption of proximate causation ought to arise. The failure of the defendant to rebut this presumption would then give rise to a conclusion of reasonable medical certainty.
On remand, I would not foreclose the district court from engaging in burden shifting as discussed above, if it finds that the record as a whole demonstrates a re-buttable presumption of proximate causation for the injuries allegedly attributable to defendant’s chemicals. In the event the defendant fails to rebut the presumption, the fact finder may find that the presumption becomes conclusive.