Aldridge v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
United States District Court for the District of Maryland
34 F. Supp. 2d 1010 (1999)
Former Kelly-Springfield employees (plaintiffs) sued Goodyear (defendant), which supplied about 10 percent of the roughly 200 hazardous chemicals used at their plant, alleging Goodyear's chemicals caused their cancers and other diseases. Their experts submitted affidavits asserting each named chemical was a "substantial contributing cause" of the diseases, based on training and unspecified scientific literature, but without identifying specific studies, causal mechanisms, exposure thresholds, or ruling out alternative causes; Goodyear moved for summary judgment.
Whether toxic-tort plaintiffs can establish causation when there is no direct evidence linking the alleged toxins to their harm and their experts' opinions do not rely on identifiable, reliable scientific data.