Did BNSF Railway Company expose workers to toxic levels of diesel exhaust? A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a deceased railway employee claims exposure on the job caused his terminal cancer.

The Case: Garner v. BNSF Railway Co.

The Court: Fourth Appellate District, State of California, Division One

The Case No.: CIVDS1720288

Garner appealed the trial court's decision. The Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division One, State of California, concluded that the trial court erred in excluding Garner's experts. The court held that the trial court's gatekeeping role is not to choose between competing expert opinions, and it does not involve weighing the persuasiveness of an expert's opinion, substituting its own opinion for the expert's opinion, or resolving scientific controversies. The court found that Garner's experts used their scientific judgment and expertise to evaluate the available data and determine whether to draw an inference of causation, which is a matter of informed judgment, not scientific methodology. The court reversed the orders and judgment and remanded the case to the trial court with instructions to enter new orders, denying BNSF's motions in limine.

The Plaintiff: Garner v. BNSF Railway Co.

The plaintiff in the case, Gary Garner, filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging his father was exposed to toxic levels of diesel exhaust during his forty years working for BNSF Railway Co. According to the plaintiff, the toxicity on the job caused his father's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and subsequent death. The plaintiff presented multiple experts discussing whether diesel exhaust and its constituents can cause cancer (including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) and whether the exposure his father was subjected to at work caused his cancer.

The Defendant: Garner v. BNSF Railway Co.

The trial court granted the defendant's motion to exclude Garner's causation experts from the trial, finding that the science presented as a foundation for the expert reports was inadequate. According to the court, there was too great an analytical gap between the opinions of the experts and the data presented.

The Case: Garner v. BNSF Railway Co.

The California wrongful death lawsuit, Garner v. BNSF Railway Co., was dismissed before trial.

If you have questions about filing a California wrongful death lawsuit, please contact Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced wrongful death attorneys are ready to assist you in various law firm offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago