Kennedy v. Southern California Edison Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
219 F.3d 988 (9th Cir. 2000)
Kennedy (plaintiff) sued Southern California Edison (SCEC) (defendant) for wrongful death, alleging his wife's cancer resulted from nuclear radiation exposure caused by SCEC's nuclear rods, which under governing law required showing exposure was, in reasonable medical probability, a substantial factor contributing to her cancer risk. The jury instructions Kennedy proposed, and the court adopted, instead stated only that exposure must have "contributed to" her risk of developing cancer — a materially lower burden than the correct "substantial factor" standard. The jury found for SCEC, and Kennedy appealed based on the flawed instructions he himself had proposed.
Whether a district court has an obligation to correctly instruct the jury even after being presented with an instruction that is improper but still directs the jury's attention to an important issue.