Rubanick v. Witco Chemical Corp.

Two chemical-plant workers exposed to PCBs at Witco's (defendant) facility both developed and died of colon cancer within four years of each other, and their survivors sued Witco and its PCB supplier Monsanto (defendant) for wrongful death. Plaintiffs' expert, Dr. Balis, testified that PCB exposure caused the cancer, basing his opinion partly on a review of 39 scientific articles, only 13 of which actually supported that causal link; the trial court excluded his testimony as not generally accepted in the scientific community and granted summary judgment to the defendants, but the appellate court reversed, finding the general-acceptance test inadequate for toxic-tort cases.