Hicks v. Charles Pfizer & Co.

Karen Hicks (plaintiff) received a polio vaccine in 1962 as a child and, 39 years later, was diagnosed with two malignant brain tumors; she sued Pfizer (defendant), alleging its vaccine caused her tumors, but after decades she could produce no direct evidence linking Pfizer specifically to the vaccine she received other than four contemporaneous 1962 newspaper articles by different authors in different papers, all identifying Pfizer as the manufacturer. Pfizer objected to the articles as inadmissible hearsay and moved for summary judgment.