Richard Cotromano, et al. v. RTX Corporation

Petitioners’ children were victims of a neighborhood-wide pediatric brain cancer cluster, which was confirmed by federal authorities. They claim the cluster was caused by radioactively contaminated fill-soil originating from Defendant’s nearby negligent remediation of contaminated soil. The Eleventh Circuit summarily affirmed orders surrounding the admissibility of specific causation testimony that Petitioners argue were arbitrary and fail to reflect the careful assessment required by this Court’s precedent and Federal Rule of Evidence 702. The orders marginalize the use of generally accepted techniques, failing to perform the assessment set forth in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993) and replacing it with a draconian application of the Eleventh Circuit’s dose relationship-response assessment requirements. Together, they suggest that the Eleventh Circuit mandates that a dose response assessment in a nuclear case must utilize a dose reconstruction extrapolated from environmental exposure rather than from a victims’ tissue even when those conclusions are supported by generally accepted principles of their relevant fields of expertise. The question presented is as follows: Whether the abuse of discretion standard requires the Circuit Courts to assess whether a trial court performed its gatekeeping function adequately rather than whether it was performed at all?