Craig Liljestrand CDLB Column: Speculative Expert Medical Report Results in Victory for Defendant in Asbestos Claim

Craig Liljestrand—a Chicago-based partner in the Product Liability practice area at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP—has published a new Chicago Daily Law Bulletin column titled "Vague expert's report on asbestos not enough to carry claim." The article examines the court case In re Asbestos Litigation, CV N14C-03-079 ASB, 2017 WL 3051483 (Del. Super. Ct., July 19, 2017), which involved a claim by the administrator of the estate of Walter Godfrey Jr. which claimed that working on Cleaver-Brooks boilers exposed Godfrey to asbestos, which caused him to develop lung cancer.

Summary judgment was granted in favor of Cleaver-Brooks because the estate was not able to establish causation. Specifically, in the expert medical report, Godfrey's disease was not linked to a particular Cleaver-Brooks product. The report, the court said, "creates nothing more than a speculative nexus between Mr. Godfrey's injuries and defendant's product." Liljestrand analyzes the reasoning behind the summary judgement including the plaintiff's failure to both meet the requisite standard under Connecticut law and introduce expert evidence specifically linking Godfrey's exposure to Cleaver-Brooks boilers.

Read the full article (PDF)

"Vague expert's report on asbestos not enough to carry claim" was published by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (subscription required)