Stasior v. National Railroad Passenger Corp.
| Decision Date | 28 August 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 95 C 1958.,95 C 1958. |
| Citation | 19 F.Supp.2d 835 |
| Parties | Joanne STASIOR, Plaintiff, v. NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORPORATION, d/b/a Amtrak, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
Louis C. Cairo, Edward W. Pirok, Goldberg, Weisman and Cairo, Ltd., Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff.
Thomas J. Healey, David R. Schmidt, Lord, Bissell & Brook, Peter F. Higgins, Attorney at Law, Chicago, IL, for Defendant.
Plaintiff Joanne Stasior filed this action on March 30, 1995, under the Federal Employers Liability Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 51-60 ("FELA") seeking damages for carpal tunnel syndrome of the right hand and tendonitis and tenosynovitis of both hands allegedly sustained during the course of her employment with Defendant National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Defendant now moves the court to bar the expert testimony of Gary Herrin and Michael Shinnick under Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993). Defendant also moves the court to enter summary judgment on its behalf under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on the grounds that Stasior cannot produce any admissible evidence to support her FELA claim. For reasons set forth below, the court grants defendant's motion to bar Stasior's expert testimony under Rule 702 and Daubert, and thereby grants defendant's motion for summary judgment.
Plaintiff Joanne Stasior ("Stasior") began working for Defendant National Railroad Passenger Corporation ("Amtrak") as a reservation sales agent at Amtrak's Chicago facility on April 4, 1977. (Stasior Dep. at 18.) Except for medical leave for unrelated back surgery in 1981, Stasior worked for Amtrak continuously from April 1977 until May 1992. (Stasior Dep. at 49-50.) Around August 1991, while working in the Reservation Sales Office ("RSO"), Stasior began to experience tingling in her hands and sharp pains in her wrists. (Stasior Dep. at 79.) Because of these symptoms, Stasior purchased wrist splints for both hands in August 1991. (Stasior Dep. at 79.)
On May 1, 1992, having lost all tolerance of pain, Stasior went to Loyola Hospital Emergency Room. After learning of her occupation, the emergency room doctor told Stasior that he believed the diagnosis was carpal tunnel syndrome ("CTS"). (Stasior Dep. at 84-85.) A third year resident, while examining Stasior, also rendered a diagnosis of tendonitis. (Stasior Dep. at 90.) In October 1992, Stasior had surgery on her wrists performed by another doctor, Dr. Gerald Harris, who also had diagnosed her condition as CTS. (Stasior Dep. at 89-90.)
Because Stasior's pain did not recede after the surgery, Dr. Harris reviewed with Stasior in 1994 how she should modify her work station so as to alleviate her pain. (Harris Dep. at 36.) This advice included having a built-in rest period from typing of 15 minutes every hour. (Harris Dep. at 37.) On Stasior's last visit to Dr. Harris,1 he noted that she still had severe pain from CTS in both wrists, that she could only work three to four days a week because of this pain, that she used a computer all day when she was at work, and that she was not getting the required hourly rest breaks. (Harris Dep. at 73.)
On March 30, 1995, Stasior filed this action under FELA alleging that in the course of performing her work as a reservation sales clerk with equipment provided by Amtrak, she sustained CTS of the right hand, including weakness, numbness, and damage to the nerves in the right hand; and tendonitis and tenosynovitis of both hands. (Stasior's Complaint ¶ 5.) Stasior alleges that her injuries resulted in whole or in part from Amtrak's negligent failure to provide her with reasonably safe working conditions. (Stasior's Complaint ¶ 6.) Stasior seeks damages in an amount in excess of $50,000. (Stasior's Complaint ¶ 7.)
On February 9, 1996, Amtrak filed a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, arguing that Stasior's claim was barred by the applicable statute of limitations. On September 19, 1996, this court denied Amtrak's motion. Stasior v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation, No. 95 C 1958, 1996 WL 568796 (N.D.Ill. September 27, 1996).
In support of its claim that it did not cause Stasior's injuries, Amtrak provides the expert testimony of professional ergonomist David T. Ridyard. Ridyard compiled a report which quantitatively analyzes the ergonomic conditions at Stasior's work station. Ridyard states that Stasior's work regimen as a reservation sales agent involves neutral wrist posture, low frequency keystrokes, and low force of keystrokes. (Ridyard Report at 2-5.) Ridyard concludes "that there are no potential carpal tunnel syndrome and other upper extremity cumulative trauma disorder risk factors at the Chicago Amtrak facility." (Ridyard Report at 6.) Amtrak also cites a scientific study which finds that while CTS is strongly associated with high force-high repetitive jobs and to a lesser extent with low force-high repetitive jobs and high force-low repetitive jobs, CTS is not associated at all with low force-low repetitive jobs. Furthermore, the study stated that often cited awkward postures are not found to be strong predictors of CTS. Barbara A. Silverstein, Ph.D. et al. Occupational Factors and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. 11 American Journal of Industrial Medicine 343, 353 (1987).
On January 16, 1998, Stasior moved the court to bar Ridyard's testimony. On January 21, 1998, this court denied Stasior's motion.
To support the causation and foreseeability elements of her FELA claim, Stasior has provided the expert testimony of two professional ergonomists, Gary D. Herrin, Ph.D. and Michael Shinnick, Ph.D.
Dr. Herrin has a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering, and he is a professor of industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan. (Herrin Dep. at 129.) Throughout his career at the University of Michigan, Dr. Herrin participated in 35 research projects tracking a variety of occupational risk factors as they relate to injury. (Herrin Dep. at 59-62.) Moreover, while Dr. Herrin is not an epidemiologist, he teaches epidemiology, and he has served as a statistician for approximately four epidemiological studies specifically investigating cumulative trauma disorders. (Herrin Dep. at 59-62.) One of these studies found an association between occupational risk factors and CTS. (Herrin Dep. at 65.) In his consulting and teaching activities both inside and outside the University of Michigan, Dr. Herrin has specifically addressed occupational hand use and CTS. (Herrin Dep. at 85.) As a professor of industrial and operations engineering, Dr. Herrin has gained roughly 25 years of experience as an ergonomist. (Herrin Dep. at 130 .) Dr. Herrin used to be the director for the Center for Ergonomics at the University of Michigan. (Herrin Dep. at 130.) Throughout his career, Dr. Herrin has trained thousands of people with regard to the entire ergonomics process. (Herrin Dep. at 131.) Dr. Herrin acknowledges that he has never conducted a peer-reviewed study investigating the hypothesized relationship between occupational hand use and cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs). (Herrin Dep. at 85, 96, 100.)
In preparing his report and testimony for this litigation, Dr. Herrin read various depositions, including Stasior's; conducted a personal interview with Stasior; visited Stasior's work station on January 23, 1997; read Amtrak's safety rules; reviewed Stasior's medical records; and reviewed various articles from ergonomic literature. (Herrin Report; Herrin Dep. at 7, 13, 14-15, 22.) Dr. Herrin read between 50-100 articles from the ergonomic literature, as well as a book entitled Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders. (Herrin Dep. at 10, 18-20, 69-70.) Dr. Herrin's method for selecting these articles consisted of performing a word search on four computer databases for all articles whose abstracts or titles contained the words "office ergonomics." (Herrin Dep. at 19 .) Dr. Herrin opines that Stasior's CTS and chronic tendonitis were caused by essentially three occupational risk factors which he observed while visiting Chicago's Amtrak facility in January 1997.
The first risk factor cited by Dr. Herrin is awkward "wrist posture." Dr. Herrin observes that Stasior could not touch the floor with her feet while working even when her chair was adjusted to the lowest possible position. (Herrin Dep. at 40.) According to Dr. Herrin, because Stasior adjusted her chair to the lowest possible position, and because the keyboard was positioned on the work table, Stasior had to raise her arms in order to reach the keyboard. Dr. Herrin documents these observations by providing measurements of Stasior's chair, work table, and Stasior herself. (Herrin Report at 3.) Dr. Herrin concludes that the configuration of Stasior's work station caused her to suffer wrist-flexion and wrist tension while she keyed. (Herrin Dep. at 8-9, Herrin Report at 3-4.) Dr. Herrin concedes that he does not know the percentage of time during which Stasior's wrists were in an awkward posture because Dr. Herrin spent a total of 20 minutes observing Stasior at her workstation. (Herrin Dep. at 193.) Dr. Herrin also concedes that he did not quantify the extent of the "awkward posture" risk factor. (Herrin Dep. at 208.)
The second risk factor cited by Dr. Herrin is "repeated and sustained hand exertions." Dr. Herrin states in his report that Stasior spent 7.5 hours per day keyboarding, and that this exposure time, combined with Amtrak's productivity standard of 92% talk-time, created the most commonly-recognized risk factor in office work. (Herrin Report at 4.) Dr. Herrin cites an epidemiological study by Dr. Laura Punnett, which he states "provides a nice...
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