In re Berg Litigation

• Citation: 293 F.3d 1127
• Decision Date: 18 June 2002
• Docket Number: No. 99-35979.,99-35979.
• Parties: In re BERG LITIGATION, Louis Berg, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. E.I. Dupont De Nemours and Company, a Delaware corporation; General Electric Co.; UNC No. 99-35979 Nuclear Industries, Inc., now merged into UNC Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation; UNC Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation; Atlantic Richfield Company Capital Accumulation Plan II, (ARCO), a Delaware corporation; Rockwell International Corporation, a Delaware corporation, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

293 F.3d 1127

In re BERG LITIGATION,

Louis Berg, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. E.I. Dupont De Nemours and Company, a Delaware corporation; General Electric Co.; UNC No. 99-35979 Nuclear Industries, Inc., now merged into UNC Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation; UNC Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation; Atlantic Richfield Company Capital Accumulation Plan II, (ARCO), a Delaware corporation; Rockwell International Corporation, a Delaware corporation, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 99-35979.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted October 15, 2001.

Filed June 18, 2002.

Brian D. Depew, Engstrom, Lipscomb & Lack, Los Angeles, CA, and Bryan P. Coluccio, Short Cressman & Burgess, Seattle, WA, for the plaintiffs-appellants.

Kevin T. VanWart, Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, IL, William R. Squires, III, Summit Law Group, Seattle, WA, Lee Radford, Moffatt, Thomas, Barrett, Rock & Fields, Idaho Falls, ID, for the defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington Alan A. McDonald, District Judge, Presiding.

Before SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, GOODWIN and HAWKINS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

SCHROEDER, Chief Judge.

This appeal is a companion to In re Hanford Nuclear Reservation Litigation, 292 F.3d 1124, also decided today, and also involves the claims of multiple plaintiffs exposed to radiation from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington between 1943 and 1987. The facts underlying these claims are set forth in detail in our opinion in In re Hanford Nuclear Reservation Litigation. The plaintiffs in this case, originally part of the group of plaintiffs in Hanford, were severed from Hanford during the second phase of discovery on September 20, 1996, for reasons we need not detail here. The record in this appeal includes an expert's report that is not in the Hanford record. The same district judge who handled Hanford also granted partial summary judgment in favor of the defendants in this case, and also on the erroneous premise that only those plaintiffs who were shown to have been exposed to radiation that exceeded what is termed a "doubling dose" could recover. We therefore, as in Hanford, reverse the grant of partial summary judgment. We also deal with claims for emotional distress and medical monitoring not litigated in Hanford.

I. "Doubling Dose"

A "doubling dose" is a level of radiation that doubles the risk of the disease or injury in question when compared with the risk experienced by the general population as a whole. As we explained in Hanford, reliance on that standard was error because the "doubling of the risk" is a measure courts use to determine whether a substance is capable of causing harm in the absence of any evidence other than epidemiological evidence of toxicity. Hanford at 1134-37. Here, we deal with a substance, radiation, that is known to be capable of causing harm. See Hanford at 1136-37. Indeed, there is no threshold harmful dosage level for radiation because it can cause harm at any level. In re Three Mile Island Litig., 193 F.3d 613, 726-27 (3d Cir.1999).

What differentiates these plaintiffs' causation cases from Hanford is the evidence relied upon by the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs in this case submitted a report prepared by Dr. F. Owen Hoffman, Ph.D. Dr. Hoffman's report established a generic methodology that was intended to be used to estimate doses and risks to specific individuals. Dr. Hoffman, using "representative" plaintiffs, also provided ranges of the estimated probability that certain diseases were caused by the radiation exposure, depending upon gender, year of birth, age at first exposure, time since first exposure, and whether the exposure was acute or chronic.

The district court held that the only plaintiffs who could proceed were those whose median, or central value probability of causation ("PC") estimates, exceeded 50%, reasoning that this threshold equated to a showing of more than "doubling the risk" of disease. The 50% level corresponds to a probability that an individual has a disease caused by radiation that is twice the probability of such disease in the population as a whole. For example, according to Dr. Hoffman's estimates, a woman born in 1945 and living in Richland, Washington, who ingested milk from a backyard cow and was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1955, has a range of PC estimates from 59% to 99%. The median of that range is 94%. A man born in 1945 and living in Spokane, Washington, who ingested milk from a backyard cow and was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1995, has a PC estimate for thyroid cancer ranging from 1.6% to 71%. The median estimate is 15%. Under the district court's holding, only the woman proved generic causation because her median, or central value estimate, exceeded 50%.

The district court's adoption of a "doubling of the risk" standard was error. We explained in Hanford that generic causation is only part of the causation inquiry. Hanford at 1133. In order to establish causation, a plaintiff must show that the radiation was both capable of causing his or her disease and that it in fact caused his or her disease. See Bonner v. ISP Technologies, Inc., 259 F.3d 924, 928 (8th Cir. 2001) ("[t]o prove causation in a toxic tort case, a plaintiff must show both that the alleged toxin is capable of causing injuries like that suffered by the plaintiff in human beings subjected to the same level of exposure as the plaintiff, and that the toxin was the cause of the plaintiff's injury"). Dr. Hoffman's report was offered during the generic causation phase of discovery and was intended as a general methodology that would take into account a few individual-specific factors to arrive at a PC estimate. According to Dr. Hoffman, to determine a specific individual's PC estimate, that individual's sex, age, diet, ethnicity, family history, type and duration of exposure, and actual mass of target organ must be taken into account. Plaintiffs never intended, nor was it understood from the district court's discovery orders, that Dr. Hoffman's report and the other, epidemiological evidence would be the only evidence they would be allowed to present to establish causation.

Nor is epidemiological evidence the sole method of establishing causation. See Glastetter v. Novartis Pharm. Corp., 252 F.3d 986, 992 (8th Cir.2001) (per curiam) (noting "[t]he absence of epidemiological evidence did not doom [plaintiff's] case"); In re Joint E. & S. Asbestos Litig., 964 F.2d 92, 97 (2d Cir.1992) (plaintiff relied on clinical evidence as well as epidemiological studies to prove causation); In re Paoli R.R.Yard PCB Litig., 35 F.3d 717, 758 (3d Cir.1994) (discussing differential diagnosis as a method of assessing causation); Caraker v. Sandoz Pharm. Corp., 188 F.Supp.2d 1026, 1033 (S.D.Ill.2001) ("[t]his Court imposes no absolute epidemiology requirement"). Indeed, Dr. Hoffman actually stated in his report that his methodology was not the only way to prove causation, noting that differential diagnosis or clinical evaluation may also establish a causal link. As in Hanford, the district court's determination at this stage that plaintiffs had to provide evidence that it was "more likely than not" that exposure to Hanford emissions caused their individual illnesses, "blurred ... [t]he two-step causation inquiry" of generic and individual causation. Hanford at 1134. Thus, we conclude that the district court erred in dismissing plaintiffs' personal injury claims on summary judgment.

II. Emotional Distress Claims

The district court held that plaintiffs' claims for emotional distress and medical monitoring are cognizable under the Price-Anderson Act even if plaintiffs had not suffered any known physical injury. Although the defendants did not file a cross-appeal, our consideration of this issue is nevertheless appropriate. Parties may raise challenges to subject matter jurisdiction at any time. May Dept. Store v. Graphic Process Co., 637 F.2d 1211, 1216 (9th Cir.1980). The defendants do not challenge the availability of damages for emotional distress by a plaintiff who has also suffered injury to person or property.

The district court upheld those emotional distress claims of plaintiffs who were not ill, but who could demonstrate that their exposure more than doubled their risk of disease. The court reasoned that such plaintiffs had shown it was "more likely than not" that they will contract an illness. The court further reasoned that when a plaintiff's exposure to Hanford emissions more than doubled that plaintiff's risk of developing a disease, such "exposure amounts to a `bodily injury.'" It rejected the defendants' position that emotional distress was not a "bodily injury" covered by the Act. We conclude that this was error. This conclusion is supported by the statutory language, the legislative history, and case law analyzing a similar provision in the Warsaw Convention.

First, the statutory language of the Price-Anderson Act provides jurisdiction in federal courts for an "action arising out of or resulting from a nuclear incident." 42 U.S.C. § 2210(n)(2). A "nuclear incident" is defined in the Act as "any occurrence, including an extraordinary nuclear occurrence, within the United States causing,... bodily injury, sickness, disease, or death, or loss of or damage to property, or loss of use of property." 42 U.S.C. § 2014(q). Physical harm to persons or property is thus a jurisdictional prerequisite.

The Act also provides that "the substantive rules for decision in such action shall be derived from the law of the State in which the nuclear incident involved occurs, unless such law is inconsistent with the provisions of such section." 42 U.S.C. § 2014(hh). Thus, although Washington law permits emotional distress claims in the absence of physical injury, see Whaley v. State, 90 Wash.App. 658, 956 P.2d 1100, 1108 (Wash.Ct.App.1998), allowance of such claims here would be...