United States Steel Corp., et al. v. Milward, et al.

Case Updates

NCLC urged the Supreme Court to review a decision by the First Circuit that threatened to undermine Supreme Court precedent requiring that expert testimony be admitted only when it is based on sound science. In this case, the district court ruled that an expert witness could not offer testimony that was based on his own personal opinion about the weight of the evidence, where that expert provided no testable scientific methodology supporting his testimony. The First Circuit held the district court’s refusal to admit this testimony to be an abuse of discretion. NCLC’s amicus brief argued that the First Circuit’s decision threatens the viability of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993) and General Elec. Co. v. Joiner, 522 U.S. 136 (1997), which established necessary safeguards to protect against admission of scientifically unreliable expert evidence. This ruling threatens to subject businesses to litigation in cases where there is no sound scientific rationale for holding the company liable.